The Virtual Music Sort

Yesterday I shared how the rise of e-books impacted the way I organize my library. A similar thing has happened with music, too. As I've mentioned elsewhere, my decision to purchase a tangible CD has more to do with the rarity of the music than any opposition to online media.

With the advent of streaming services such as Mog, Spotify, and even (to a certain extent) Pandora, one might wonder if there's any need to purchase music -- either in physical or digital form -- ever again.

I think the answer depends on what you mean by music, and how you listen to it.

For most people (at least most people I know), music is something that's a convenience rather than a passion. They're perfectly happy listening to the popular artists in their preferred genres, and a large subset of them are even happier just hearing the hits.

So for those folks, (assuming they have ready Internet access) it doesn't really make sense to own music anymore. Like Classic Rock? You can hear "Sweet Home, Alabama" any time you want online -- so why buy the track?

These services are great for those who want to dig deeper, too. There's a lot of less familiar and more esoteric stuff available. But go too far, and you hit the licensing wall. Not every song by every artist (even the most popular ones) ia available. And for someone like me, that can be a real problem.

So here's my current deal: big names and charting songs I'll just access from the cloud. But that collection of early 1960's British girl groups? I better pick that one up when I see it. Because, based on experience, one or two tunes from that compilation might show up in a service, but not all of them. And the only way I'll get to hear those songs is if I own a copy.

So if you visit my home and take a peek at my CD collection, you'll probably see a lot of names you don't recognize, and some gaping holes where those artists that "everybody loves" should be. But that's simply because those artists are readily available, and most of the artists I own CDs of aren't.

With limited funds and storage space, one has to make choices!

(How do I know which obscure artists and songs are worth spending money on? That's a discussion we'll save for another day!)

New music for new virtuosos

River of Light
American Short Works for Violin and Piano 
Tim Fian, violin; Pei-Yo Wang, piano 
Naxos  8.559662

Violinist Tim Fain had an interesting idea. Violin virtuosos of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries had a wealth of short, contemporary works to round out their recitals and use as encore pieces. So why not develop a similar body of music for modern violinists?

That’s the concept behind River of Light, a selection of short violin showpieces, all composed by American composers -- many at the behest of Fain. Some of the biggest names in American music are represented, such as Philip Glass, William Bolcolm, Jennifer Higdon, and Aaron Jay Kernis, but the collection is about quality, not celebrity.

The disc takes its title from an eleven minute work by Richard Danielpour, an elegiac piece that sings with neo-romantic vigor. Fain brings out the autumnal nature of the work with his sympathetic performance. Another highpoint is Patrick Zimmerli’s “The Light Guitar,” a three-movement work for solo violin that provides Fain plenty of opportunity to demonstrate not only his technical facility, but also his musicality. The work very much depends on the soloist bringing out the lyric quality of the melody, something Fain does very well.

Philip Glass’ “Knee Play 2” (from his opera Einstein on the Beach) makes an excellent moto perpetuo, that staple of the violin recital. Fain plays it with precision and unflagging energy. The oldest work on the CD is “Wistful Piece,” by Ruth Shaw Wylie (1953), a short piece that seems akin in style to Howard Hanson. While it does sound a little dates, Wylie's music still works within the context of the program.

Sometimes I find collections of violin showpieces a little wearisome to listen to, because all the works are pretty much the same. Not so with River of Light. Fain has put together a program of music that offer up variety in style, emotional depth, character, and even instrumentation (some have piano accompaniment, some are solo violin only). This is not only an enjoyable disc to listen to, but one I hope violinists will take to heart. I would love to hear some of these works in recital rather than the same old encore pieces!

Review: Farinelli the composer

Farinelli: The Composer  
Jorg Washchinski, male soprano  
Salburger Hofmusik; Wolfgang Brunner, conductor New Classical Adventure

“Farinelli the composer” is a fascinating release. CarloBroschi (AKA Farinelli) was – by all accounts – the greatest castrato opera singer of his day, and perhaps of all time. But because Farinelli conquered the stage 200 hears before sound recording technology, we only have contemporary descriptions of his voice to judge the extent of his talent.

Fortunately, in addition to being a singer, Farinelli was also a composer. Like many virtuosos of his day, he wrote music exclusively for his own  performances -- primarily arias. Baroque opera singers were expected to improvise around the written score, and Farinelli was no exception. Of course, such improvisations are ephemeral. But just as a Miles Davis composition can provide insight into his improvisational style, so too does Farinelli’s arias give us a better idea of what his voice was capable of, and how he was likely to improvise in performance.

The arias on this release are of great historical interest, which is not to say they’re without compositional merit. Even though the orchestrations are run-of-the-mill, Farinelli was a better than average composer with a real gift for melody (not surprisingly). The vocal lines he wrote for himself are full of unusual twists, turns, and leaps that could trip up a lesser singer.

Sopranist Jorg Waschinski is more than equal to the task, and does an outstanding job with this material. No matter how talented the countertenor, the range is always a little more constrained than that of a true castrato. Nevertheless, Waschinski soars through the upper register seemingly without effort, delivering a clear, full-voiced sound. If you’ve seen the movie “Farinelli” then you know of the man’s reputation. But the voice you heard was a digital blend of different singers. In this release you hear an actual singer delivering Farinelli’s music to the best of his formidable ability. And the humanity of  Waschinski's voice makes all the difference.

Although we can never really know what Farinelli sounded like, this recording of his music brings us a little bit closer.   Highly recommended for anyone interested in Baroque or Classical era opera.

"Hilos" Presents a Tapestry of Gabriela Frank's Music

Frank: Hilos (Threads); Danza de los Saqsampillos; Adagio para Amantani; Quijotadas

ALIAS Ensemble
Naxos

Gabriela Lena Frank is an up-and-coming composer who's really made a name for herself in the realm of chamber music. The latest collection of her work features four recent chamber compositions with a common theme. All, in some fashion, draw inspiration from Latin and South American music traditions.

It's an impressive recording. The CD starts with "Hilos" (Threads) , a 2010 work for clarinet, violin, cello, and piano. Based on Peruvian elements, the work works and reworks various instrumental combinations, creating the sonic tapestry the title refers to. Frank composes with a strong rhythmic feel, using sparse melodic and contrapuntal lines that make the work accessible while sounding like nobody else.

The "Adagio para Amantani" seems more influenced by academia than Andelusia. This haunting work for cello and piano presents small repeated note motifs that seem to hang suspended in space, punctuated by chord clusters. But this isn't just an intellectual exercise. The music has a forward motion and a logical progression to it that makes it work.

The "Quijotadas" for string quartet is similar, but has a much stronger Latin feel to it. To me, it's the most musically substantial composition on the album. While I enjoyed it the first time I heard it, I know repeated hearings will reveal more of the complex structure of the work.

My favorite track was the "Danza de los Saqsampills" for two marimbas. It's a uniquely Frank work, but if I had to describe it in other terms, I'd call it a Latin-American Steve Reich homage (which only hints at what the work sounds like). A better description might be that this is simply six minutes of fun.

The works are performed by the ALIAS Chamber Ensemble, a group Frank has worked closely with. The ensemble know and understand Frank's compositional language, which really adds to the performances.

I have to admit I didn't know a lot about Gabriela Frank before getting this recording. But now that I've listened to it, I'd like to explore her music further.

If you're looking for a fresh compositional voice (especially if you like chamber music), then I highly recommend giving Hilos a listen.

CD Review: Ferdinand Ries - a kinder, gentler Beethoven

Ferdinand Ries: Piano Concertos, Vol. 4
Christopher Hinterhuber, piano; Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra; Uwe Grodd, conductor
Naxos

Ferdinand Ries is best remembered today (if at all) as Beethoven’s  personal assistant.  Although he served that role well – securing performances, publication deals and more – that wasn’t originally why their paths crossed. Ries came to Beethoven in 1803 to study composition.

Like his mentor, Ries was a piano virtuoso as well as a composer. His piano concertos were written primarily for his own use, to provide material he could use in performance – a standard practice of the day for any touring virtuoso.

Naxos has released four volumes of Ries’ concerti, the most recent featuring two of these works plus a shorter fantasia for piano and orchestra. So what does Ries’ music sound like? Sort of like a kinder, gentler Beethoven. His works have the same general structure, with some of the same harmonic turns that Beethoven favored. You’ll also hear big orchestral chords hammering away at important cadence points. But there the similarities end.

Ries is more concerned with tuneful melodies than delivering pronouncements from on high. His motifs are light and appealing. While the solo piano part is challenging technically, it’s more about taking the listener along on a thrilling melodic journey rather than fully exploring the potential of either the instrument or the motifs.

Stylistically, Ferdinand Ries straddles the late classical and early romantic era. The Introduction et Rondeau Brillant Wo54 which appears on this release, is a good illustration of that. While not entirely free of Beethoven’s influence, Ries’ work seems more Schubertian in its free-form development.

Pianist Christopher Hinterhuber turns in a top-notch performance on this recording (as does Uwe Grodd and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra). His playing is light and fluid – perfectly suited to this material – yet it has power when it needs to. Hinterhuber really makes the cadenzas sparkle, and gives the impression that Ries’ music is actually fun to play.  An appealing collection of works for piano and orchestra!

Why I still by CDs (it's not because I'm old)

Yes, I still look for -- and purchase -- CDs. I'm not a technological dinosaur by any means. I have no problem downloading (legally) just the hit song of a current group. I, like many others, am not willing to pay for filler.

There are three basic reasons why I still purchase a lot of music and rip it myself, though. If you haven't gone all-digital, perhaps one or more of these apply to you.

Liner notes
Most of the music I purchase these days falls into one of two categories. If it's popular music, then I'm getting compilation albums of obscure genres, defunct record labels, or career highlights of forgotten or little-known bands.

I always know what I'm getting into musically, but I rely on the liner notes to put things into context. How did the label start? Why did it fail? What was the band's lineup at the time of the recording? How was the regional market for this genre different than the national? These are some of the things I expect the compilation liner notes to answer (and for the most part they do -- especially British releases. They take this stuff seriously).

I also buy a lot of classical music, and liner notes are equally important there. I'm long past the stage where I need to read about Beethoven tearing up the dedication page to the "Eroica" symphony. I'm very familiar with that story -- but then I'm not buying yet another version of Beethoven's Symphony No. 3, either.

Rather, I'm purchasing works by lesser-known composers, or modern composers. I rely on the liner notes to provide biographical information (especially for the newer composers), and detailed information surrounding either the composition or performance history of the work.

Was Joachim Raff's first symphony well-received? How was Leo Smit's music saved and championed after his death in a concentration camp? How did Robert Simpson fit into the musical world of Tudor England? This information helps me appreciate the works on a different level. They're not just music floating in space, but rather part of the vast continual tapestry of classical music stretching from the middle ages to the present day.

Multi-movement classical works
I know for most people, hearing a single movement out of a symphony or a piano sonata is no big deal. It's short, it has the hit tune, and after a few minutes its over.

Unfortunately, I don't function like that. While early music suites were put together casually (even by the composers) and could be mixed and matched, by the time you get to the 1600's, composers are starting to use mult-movements in their works to provide contrast and drama. Monteverdi in 1624 strings together several madrigals to make up his drama "Il combattimento di Tancreci e Clorinda." Each madrigal stands alone musically, but it's only when you hear them in sequence that the full story and dramatic pacing comes through.

And most of the music of Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven was written specifically for multi-movement forms. The typical classical symphony begins with an uptempo rousing first movement. Then there's a slower second movement in a related key to change the pace. Then a lively scherzo (but much lighter musically than the first movement) in triple time to get the juices flowing again. Finally, the last movement, which is lighter in construction than the first movement, but faster to get everyone excited again.

While each movement has a beginning and end, they're not four separate pieces of music strung together. Beginning in the1800s composers carried over themes, motives, rhythmic patterns from movement to movement. So to fully appreciate the over-arching structure of the music, you really have to hear all the movements in order.

I can't purchase classical music except movement by movement ($$$) and once I've downloaded it, I can't really control how they'll show up in shuffle. Yes, I could make folders for each work, but really: that doesn't solve the problem.

In iTunes, I can join adjacent tracks to play as one continuous "song." Works for me. Now when Haydn's "London" symphony comes up on shuffle play, I know I'll hear the whole thing (which is the way I want it). Ditto for Vaughan William's chamber opera "Riders to the Sea."

Multi-disc classical works
Unfortunately, I can't load everything onto iTunes and join tracks. Havergal Brian's First Symphony is so big, it's spread over two discs. And you can only join tracks from a single disc in iTunes. So that one has to sit on my shelf for later listening. Ditto with my Wagner Ring Cycle (averaging 3-4 per opera), and other larger symphonic and operatic works.

So if I want to listen to something that runs more than 75 minutes (and I do with fair frequency), my only recourse is to pull the discs off the shelf and put them on.

Unavailable and irreplaceable recordings
Most of the stuff I'm really interested in just doesn't turn up that often as a digital download. So even if I wanted to go that route, I generally don't have that option. A good number of the discs I purchase are actually out of print (or seem to become so shortly after I buy them).

But that's fine, because at least I have a hard copy for backups. And I've needed them. I recently had a 1TB hard drive go belly up before I could adequately back up my music library. I lost some downloads I'm not interested in replacing, and some I won't be able to even if I could (the band websites are no longer online) but the Kurt Hessenburg Symphony on Cassandra? No problem.

So that's why I still buy CDs. Most of them used, many out of print, but still. The ones I pick up still have value beyond the digital tracks they contain.

Seeding with Podcasts

My post yesterday about how the spirit of radio personalities have migrated to podcasts prompted an interesting (albeit slightly off-topic) response from Sean Tubbs of the Charlottesville Podcasting Network (CPN).

I created [CPN] three years ago as a place to give my public radio pieces their own archive, but also to expand into other kinds of programming.... My conclusion has been it's not cost-effective as a for-profit model at this time because the potential audience at this time is so low.

But check back in 5 years or so.

My day job at Charlottesville Tomorrow, however, allows me to make a living while using blogs, podcasts, and all of these new communications tools to advance our mission

Right on, my brother.

That's exactly what I use my podcast for, too. The "DCD Classical 'Cast" is a promotional podcast for our label, DCD Records. Since we're selling sound recordings, it makes sense to present the merchandise in an audio format. (Why not just send promo copies to radio stations? We'll discuss the glacial speed of song rotation in the classical music format another time.)

We can see a correlation between the titles that sell well and the ones we feature on the podcast, but it's not a one-to-one match. Unlike a radio broadcast, a podcast is forever. There's a bump when a new episode first gets released, but there's no way to predict which episodes are going to downloaded at any particular time, and therefore when you can expect the sales they generate.

Someone just discovering the "DCD Classical 'Cast" may subscribe, and automatically download all the past episodes to get caught up. Others might be looking for a specific performer, composer or label, and just download just the one episode they're looking for.

Our very first episode, for example, was most recently downloaded June 1, 2008 -- yet it was released February 7, 2006. If we only looked at the February/March 2006 sales of the titles featured in that episode, we might conclude that our podcast was a failure. But over the course of the past two years, those releases have enjoyed an increase in sales over similar recordings not featured in our podcasts. So we have a different conclusion.

Just like with the CPN, it's all a matter of scale. A certain percentage of the subscribers to the "DCD Classical 'Cast" purchase the music we showcase. Potentially, we could reach the stage where our subscriber base (and therefore our customer base) grows large enough to account for the bulk of our sales.

It hasn't happened yet, and quite frankly I'm not counting on it to ever do so. Classical music represents about seven percent of CD/download sales, and that market share has been fairly consistent for some time now. However -- our podcast is reaching classical listeners worldwide. So even if our circulation remains modest, people who otherwise would have never have heard of the artists and labels we carry can now enjoying them.

And unlike that fleeting moment when a song's broadcast on the radio, with our podcast our subscribers can enjoy the music when they want, where they want, and as many times as they want. And that's just fine with me.

Our circulation grew by about 50% over the first year, and jumped 70% in the second. As Sean suggests, let's check back in five years and see where we are. We might not be on Easy Street, but I suspect we'll like our new location.

- Ralph

WJMA, WVTF, and the weakest link

While it seems obvious to most readers of this blog (being the Internet-savvy lot that you are), the basic concepts of the web still elude many. I've written often about the website of our local radio station, WJMA. I do so primarily because it's a real-world example of the kind of mistakes businesses can make when the decision-makers don't really understand what this new medium is all about.

And what it's about are two basic things: quality content and connectivity. To make money from website traffic (either through ads or just raising brand awareness) you need something to bring the eyeballs to your site. And you need easy ways for folks to access the content once they arrive.

It's not that different from traditional retail: keep the shelves stocked with attractive merchandise, and lay out the store to encourage shopping. Yet many don't make the connection (as anyone who's tried to get any kind of online innovation approved by higher-ups baffled by e-mail can attest).

Let's take my recent flurry of posts that linked to the news pages of two radio station websites: WJMA and WVTF. Now a case can be made that this could be an unfair comparison: WJMA's a commercial station, and WVTF's public radio. WJMA has a single news reporter, and WVTF has a staff of them. Yet in both cases one news reporter was responsible for the creation and posting of the content I linked to. So let's see what happened to the folks I sent their way -- and the impact on the stations.

WJMA news site (I've also taken a screen shot of the page).
Is there anything here that invites us to stay? The local headlines still do little more than tease for stories that aren't there.

"A retired D-C police detective is running for the Culpeper Town Council."

Really? Who? What's his background? No details -- and no links. We have nowhere to go to get additional information about this cryptic piece of information. And notice the D.C. abbreviation. That's the spelling used for on-air reading to ensure the initials are pronounced correctly. Whoever posted this didn't even bother to change it to the correct form for written text.

Well, the news page is a dead end. How about the home page? From there, we can either go to the Weather Underground, or the Virginia Department of Health, but that's about it (and I'm not really sure why that's on the radio station's homepage anyway). I'm posting this in April and the scrolling banner at the top of the page is still advising me to click on Closings for the latest winter closing and cancellations.

Any traffic I send to this website is basically wasted. A visitor coming from CE Conversations sees neither quality content or relevant links, and the station derives no benefit from the visit. If the news page was a store, it would be an ill-lit dingy one with a few dusty items on mostly-empty shelves.

WVTF Captive Audio (I've taken a screen shot of this page as well)
Once again, we have a headline -- "Catching up with a member of Ol' Virginia Soul." It's just as cryptic as WJMA's, but this time there's additional information.

The stories behind the story of the Arcania record label continue. Arcania founder Brent Hosier put out a series of compact discs focusing on soul, psychedelic and garage bands that recorded around Virginia in the 1960s. WVTF's Connie Stevens has the story of Junious Bugs Hughes, featured on the Ol' Virginia Soul collection.

So now we know what Ol' Virginia Soul is, we know who's being interviewed, and we know the background of the series. Oh -- and we also know who did the story and when. Notice that the WJMA posting is anonymous (I don't think I'd want to put my name to it either), and the only clue we have about the date is a 2006 copyright notice!

Connie Stevens also provides us with a picture of Mr. Hughes, and a link so we can listen to the story. This is valuable content, with intuitive connectivity. Even though I didn't hear the segment when it was broadcast, I can still listen to it now.

The visitor who followed my link gets some useful information. And the station derives some benefit as well. The page has plenty of links to WVTF's other locally produced programs, as well as their national feeds. It also has a link so the visitor can listen online. And just reading the links gives the visitor a good overview of the station and its services (and of course ways to contribute).

Folks who click through to WJMA reach a dead end. Those who follow the links to WVTF have an entirely different experience.

And here's the other part of the equation. By linking to WVTF's Captive Audio page, we've benefited ourselves. I'm linking to this page because we're selling the CDs that are the focus of the Captive Audio series. And the Arcania International segments on WVTF started airing, sales of the discs have risen dramatically over the past month (and causing us to quickly re-press two titles). And some of those sales have come from outside WVTF's coverage area, which suggests online listening via their website.

When it's done right, the connectivity of the web can help both the linker and the object of the link. Obvious to some, but many are oblivious to it all.

- Ralph

Arcania International on WVTF -- Part 3!

This week Connie Stevens continued her series profiling Arcania International artists on public radio station WVTF. The segment, "Captive Audio" uses Arcania's "Ol' Virginia Soul" and "Aliens, Psychos and Wild Things" compilation CDs of Virginia soul groups and garage bands of the 1960's as its starting point.

Junius Bug Hughes, who recorded "I'm Just What the Doctor Ordered" in the sixties is this week's subject. While his record didn't take him to the big time, he still managed to have a successful music career before moving back to Virginia and becoming an ordained minister.

It's an interesting story, well-told by Stevens through judicious editing and the use of background sounds.

And of course, it throws some attention to "Ol' Virginia Soul: Encore!" where Hughes' track can be found. So both as a public radio listener and the distributor of Arcania International releases, I enjoyed the segment very much!

- Ralph

The Soul Masters and WVTF

Connie Stevens continues her series spotlighting forgotten Virginia bands in her "Captive Audio" segment on public radio station WVTF. This morning she profiled the Soul Masters, a 1960's racially mixed band from Danville Virginia.

Of course I like the series for professional reasons -- we carry Arcania International's reissue CDs which provided the framework for the stories on our DCD Records website. But I'm also excited personally. I've discovered some great tracks on Arcania International's releases that I would have never have found otherwise. And the "Captive Audio" reports are helping a wider audience discover them as well.

The segment this morning was particularly well done. Stevens not only had interviews from the band members, but also supporting commentary by a member of Gene and Teen/Team Beats (who were featured the previous week) and the head and chief bottle-washer of Arcania International, Brent Hosier.

I don't know how long the series is going to run, but I'm very much looking forward to the next installment -- for all the right reasons.

- Ralph

"Radio Nowhere" by John Amos

I was trying to find my way home,
But all I heard was a drone,
Bouncing off a satellite,
Crushing the last lone American night.
This is Radio Nowhere.
Is there anybody alive out there?

--Bruce Springsteen

Well, is there? Will somebody please answer the man’s question: Is anybody alive out there? I’ve been listening, but it seems pretty dead to me. Commercial radio, once such a potent means of communication, has become an utter wasteland.

I spend two hours a day in my truck, which doesn’t have a working CD player. So I listen to a lot of radio. I’ve got ten preset buttons, but only a couple are worth pushing.

Most stations today play pre-programmed “hits.” Few have live deejays. Of the ones that do, advertisements and silly talk predominate. Crude humor abounds. Once we had Wolfman Jack; now we have Imus, Stern, and a host of other shock-jock wannabes.

Stations try to grab listeners with fizzy promises (“more music, less talk”) and catchy slogans (“Generation Radio,” an inane euphemism for the oldies format). What’s missing, of course, is any sort of community connection. I realize the bottom-line drives a station’s programming decisions, but the fact remains: pre-packaged shows, produced in nameless places, are no substitute for the real, live thing.

Most stations today are owned by huge corporations. That’s why they all sound alike. Can’t take a chance on something original, so we’ll just play another worn out old standby, tell another smutty joke. The result: homogenized play-lists and tasteless talk.

It was not always so.

In fact, not that long ago radio was a vibrant part of this community. Orange’s tiny station had talent that much larger markets must have envied. Arch Harrison, Ross Hunter, and Bill Little were classy broadcasters with made-for-radio voices. The station also developed young talent, hiring high school students as broadcast interns, who learned the ropes quickly and soon became radio personalities in their own right. These folks took their work seriously, and they put out a product that people wanted, maybe even needed, to hear.

My grandmother listened religiously to The Swap Shop, a sort of on-air yard sale. She loved hearing people call in to trade clothes, cars, books, and other odd-and-ends. I once heard an old farmer on The Swap Shop attempt to trade a bushel of sweet potatoes for a 1968 Ford Galaxy transmission. I kid you not.

People tuned in on Friday nights to hear Hornet football games. They listened on election night to local politicos discuss the vote tallies. Teenagers called, requesting songs and offering dedications. People set their alarms to hear their neighbors’ birthdays announced. Churches took turns airing Sunday morning services.

None of it was particularly exciting, but it was genuine. Real people, real entertainment, and real information. Of course, it’s no longer cost-effective; but surely something has been lost.
A few oases still exist in today’s radio wasteland. National Public Radio provides a wonderful medley of music, interviews, and in-depth reporting. A Prairie Home Companion is the closest thing we have to the classic shows of the 30’s and 40’s.

Closer to home, several Charlottesville stations are bucking the trend. WNRN advertises itself as “community radio” and plays a wonderful grab-bag of music. 106.1 “The Corner” lives up to its slogan, “Different is Good.” And you never know what gem you’ll hear next on WTJU. These stations mix passionate volunteers with seasoned, professional deejays to create something worth listening to.

And in Orange, Phil Goodwin continues to report daily on local news. He’s a humane and intelligent voice, crying in the wilderness.

The internet is also trying hard to revive the medium. XM and Sirius offer stations devoted to blues, jazz, sports-talk, and just about anything else you could want. Services like Pandora and slacker.com actually allow listeners to build their own stations. Though I like the concept, internet radio seems a bit sterile to me. Good radio should deliver a sense of place, and who can say where the internet originates?

Radio, far more than television, relies on an audience’s imagination. Without pictures, it has only words, voice, and human warmth to reach listeners. This requires a person at the other end of the microphone, not a recording.

Like the newspaper industry, radio is struggling to remain relevant in the modern age. It will only survive by cultivating the human connection. Abandon that, and all you’ve got left is waves, bouncing off a satellite.

- John Amos

©2008 by John Amos
Reprinted by permission

The RIAA and the Numbers Game

We've been hearing dire predictions from the major labels (and various commentators) about the trend of declining CD sales. It’s the excuse the RIAA uses for prosecuting real and imagined illegal downloaders in a willy-nilly fashion, and it's the mantra well-lobbied congresscritters cite as the reason for increasingly restrictive and intrusive legislation.

At the heart of the argument is an underlying assumption: the trend will continue in a straight-line progression. Such predictions are seldom accurate. Most trends tend to generate a curve rather than a straight line.

But let's give the RIAA their premise, and assume CD sales will continue to decline at a steady rate. Interestingly enough, there's precious little discussion in the RIAA camp of the trend in download sales. You'll see citations that download sales while rising, haven't made up for the losses in CD sales – leaving the unspoken assumption that they never will.

OK, but if the RIAA can assume that CD sales will continue to decline at a constant rate, why can't we assume that the rate of change for download sales remain constant as well?

The RIAA provides sales figures for various years, breaking out physical sales and downloads. According to their report, CD sales declined 13.8% in 2006, while downloads increased 74.4% in the same time period. Total digital sales represented less than 10% of the total for physical product, a fact which causes the RIAA to loudly gnash its teeth and dramatically rend its garments.

But let's play a little bit of "if this goes on" and see what happens – according to the RIAA's own numbers – if CD sales continue to decline and download sales continue to rise at their current rate.

For 2007 and 2008, things don't look so good. Both years show a net loss in revenue. Three years from now, though, total sales will be greater than 2006 (net gain). And by 2010, total sales will exceed those of 1996, those halcyon days when dinosaurs ruled the earth – er, I mean when CDs ruled the charts.

And look at what happens next. Six years from now, net sales will be double what they are today. And by 2015 projections show the record industry making 12 times what it does today.

According to our straight-line projections, the major labels will have two more years of (relative) famine before the money starts rolling in. And if these projections aren't realistic, then I invite the RIAA to provide better ones – but include both CD sales and download sales in the mix.

Apple iTunes sales just hit the three billion mark. It took two years to sell the first billion, a year to sell the second and six months to sell three. If this goes on, indeed!

How fast or slow will this change occur? That's up to the RIAA -- will it continue to buck the trend, or finally embrace the change?

- Ralph

Syndrome City

I'm gearing up for a trade show next week. We shipped out our booth today, and I'm making my final preparations before I fly out -- and stealing myself for four days of dealing with people suffering from Dunning-Kruger Syndrome.

Don't get me wrong. My business partner and I always enjoy these professional conferences. They're a chance to catch up with friends and colleagues face-t0-face, make and renew connections, and help get the word out about our services (in this case creating custom CD compilations for public radio stations). And I'll spend a lot of time dealing with Dunning-Kruger.

In case you didn't click on the link, the study by Dunning and Kruger demonstrated that the less a person knew about a subject, the more they thought they knew.

So even though I've been developed relationships with record labels, drafted licensing agreements, and worked on over 100 successful CD projects over the past 15 years, someone will stand in front of our booth and say "Why should we hire you instead of doing it ourselves?"

And naturally, the person asking the question will have no experience at all.

Even when we work with a station, we often have to deal with Dunning-Kruger. The program director who ignores our guidelines for selecting music (my recommendations are strictly limited to availablity and affordability) and stops the project dead by insisting on unobtainable tracks. The designer who doesn't understand the diffence between print and web requirements, ignores our print specs (based on my partner's twenty years of CD print work) and causes major delays when every file has to be reworked.

All professions have to endure Dunning-Krugerites, I think. Why hire a lawyer when I download a fill-in-the-blank will? Why get a real estate agent when I can just stick a "for sale" sign in the yard? Why hire a professional painter when any fool can slap a brush around?

Whatever your profession, I think having your knowledge, experience and skill regarded as valueless is insulting, to say the least.

So when a D-K sufferer asks me, "Why do we need you? Can't I do this myself?" I have a simple response.

I smile, and say as nicely as possible:

"Yes. Yes, you can. And you can also cut your own hair."

Sometimes they get it.

- Ralph