Stars of the Music Business
posted August 11, 2007, 12:22 pm | Log In To Post Comments | 
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Tags: Stars, In Our Bedroom After The War, Bootlegging, Leaking, P2P, Music Business, Arts&Crafts
I’m watching Stars and their new release, In Our Bedroom After The War, very closely. If you haven’t heard, the Toronto chamber-pop indie group released their fourth album four days after the completion of recording. In a form of controlled-leaking, In Our Bedroom After The War was released digitally online, with a physical manifestation of the album to come later. Their label, Arts&Crafts, has this to say on their website:
“We believe that the line between the media and the public is now completely grey. What’s the difference between a writer for a big glossy music magazine and a student writing about their favorite band on their blog? What differentiates a commercial radio station from someone adding a song to their last.fm channel? or their myspace?”
Basically, Stars is hoping to pre-empt the now-guaranteed leak associated with modern music by selling their album before anyone even knew they were done with it. The hope is that people will be more persuaded to simply buy the album, rather than wait for a free torrent to come out—a flip from the usual flow, where downloading the album illegally is faster than waiting for the official release date.
While I’m not sure if this process will work, I like Stars and their label Arts&Crafts because at least they’re trying. I’m sick to death of music companies complaining to high heaven about P2P sharing and illegal downloads hurting sales, then do nothing about it (nothing productive at least). That’s (sort of) like a car company complaining that their defective tires are hurting sales, then suing the drivers who had their tires blew out.
What’s frustrating about this topic for me is I can complain all I want about the conservative, unchanging nature of the music business—but that’s all I can do. I have no answers, no solutions, and no new ideas. All I have is the dire need for SOME change to happen. Nothing will happen if record labels sit and complain (or keeping suing everyone). They have to TRY something. Yes, many will fail and many labels may go under, but that’s the way of change. It’s certainly better than having every label go under, because no one was willing to take a chance.
That’s why I will be watching the coming success or failure of Stars and In Our Bedroom After The War. Arts&Crafts are trying something new, and that’s as refreshing as Stars’ new orchestral workings.
Comments:
Very interesting find. I'm going to track this down and check it out. God Bless Canada!
posted on August 14, 2007, 12:42 pm
Nice find on this story...
That’s (sort of) like a car company complaining that their defective tires are hurting sales, then suing the drivers who had their tires blew out.
Your stylistics are oftenly priceless...
Additional Tags: Forms, Joe Henry, Habib Koite, Vic Chesnutt, M. Ward, Civilians, Afriki, North Star Deserter, Post War, Forms, Recommendations
posted on August 11, 2007, 2:52 pm
