J. L. Puckett has the story of another benefit for the victims of the LAVA House fire, this one on Thursday at Flanagan’s Ale House on Baxter. It’ll be a Celtic night, with My Darling Asleep and Guilderoy Byrne doing the entertainment honors. Tix at $5, showtime is 6 p.m.
The ongoing ‘discussion’ about the effects of the internet on music has been primarily dominated by the corporations and their PR machine, backed by their lawyers. Bob Ostertag, a working musician in San Francisco has a different take on the matter, both in the long term and the short term:
Humans have walked this earth for about 195,000 years. We don’t know exactly when music emerged, but it was certainly a very long time ago, long before recorded history. There is evidence that music may have been integral to the evolution of the human brain, that music and language developed in tandem. The first recording device was invented just 129 years ago. The first mass-produced record appeared just 110 years ago. The idea that selling permission to listen to recorded music is the foundation of the possibility of earning one’s livelihood from music is at most 50 years old, and it is a myth. The fact that most musicians today believe in this myth is an ideological triumph for corporate power of breathtaking proportions.
There’s a lot more in this essay. Read it at www.questioncopyright.org and rethink your position about ‘da muzic bidness’.
—- PMM
Bob Lefsetz has a particularly snippy reaction to the recent announcement of changes in the cost of online music. Lefsetz rants that the labels still don’t get the digital distribution thing and are going to fly themselves into the ground if they continue thinking that it’s still ‘the business as usual’ of making CDs and selling them via radio and retail stores. Read his whole rant here.
Apple iTunes has made another step into the new music marketing model with the introduction of “Complete My Album,” whereby a customer who has previously bought on or more singles for 99 cents can buy the complete album, with the cost of those previous purchases deducted from the total cost of the album. Everybody is commenting on it; you can get the straight scoop at iTunes.com
.. are getting less slow, musically speaking. Tonight in Louisville, you can catch da Mudcats on “The Player’s Spot” at 9 p.m. on WYCS, Channel 24 (138 Insight Cable).
The Pussycat Dolls are coming to Louisville on April 19. Tickets go on sale Friday at the Freedom Hall Box Office and on Ticketmaster.
Jeffrey Lee Puckett has his usual Tuesday (spelled Teusday at the C-J’s website) list of recent album releases.
——PMM
The Associated Press is reporting that a wide array of broadcasters and online companies, including NPR (National Public Radio) and Clear Channel Communications, have challenged a ruling from a panel of copyright judges. The ruling, which applies only to digital transmission of music, increased per-play fees and imposed a flat $500 yearly charge per ‘channel’ of music being broadcast or webcast. The businesses argue that the new fees would have a severe, negative impact on webradio, effectively shutting them down.
The new rule also eliminated a provision that allowed small commercial webcasters to pay a flat 12% of annual revenues to lieu of estimating the total number of plays.
Get the whole story at Yahoo.com
—PMMThe spot of spring weather was pleasant, but it’s still early, so button up when you head out to hear some music this weekend. I’ve been cooped up, updating gigs, logging new shows and otherwise keeping a digital finger on the cyber life of Louisville music.
Over at the C-j, Andrew Adler has a review of Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg’s appearance with the LO. “Tame,” he called her.
Christa Ritchie has the round-up of all the Irish/ St. Paddy’s day hoopla and drinking spots. The usual: The Rover, Molly’s, Flanigan’s, O’Shea’s. Think Baxter Ave./Frankfort Ave. if you’re Irish this weekend.
Jeffrey Lee Puckett has his required St. Pat’s Day column.
The Library of Congress Copyright Royalty Board, which sets the various rates payable for the use of intellectual property, recently set new rates – at the urging of the RIAA - applicable to online radio and digital song sales. The board ruled that the current rate of 0.08 of a cent each time a song is played would more than double by 2010. For music sites run by tax-exempt nonprofit organizations, the board set a flat $500 annual fee per radio channel for a certain number of listening hours per month.
The increase would effectively put many online radio sites out of business, or at least limit their playlist to unpublished material. For more details, check the Florida Sun-Sentinel’s story or Yahoo.com’s write-up here.
R.J, Eskrow has some more forceful commentary on ways to react to this news at his posting on The Smirking Chimp.
—- PMM
If this is Tuesday, it must Jeffrey Lee Puckett’s column on new CD releases, plus a little plug about somebody, that being Iggy Pop this time