What is Wrong With Cdn Taste in Music ?

[RoadwarriorII]

The entire music industry is changed, for better or worse. I'm working on the fourth indy album for a local Toronto band, and they have had people at their shows tell them they wouldn't spend the $8.00 for their CD...not because they didn't like the music, but because they could download it for free. Some of the tracks have been downloaded over 30,000 times, which is great, but doesn't help pay for the next CD. There won't likely be a fifth album even if there was material available...too much time and effort for too little return.

The industry doesn't (and can't) support young artists the way they used to...bands have to already have a substantial local following, basically guaranteeing the label will not loose money. The radio stations will only play a certain type of music to their market, which limits exposure if a band doesn't fit in.

A couple friends of mine spent a couple hours in the studio mucking with Acid, Reason and FruityLoops, and we created a half dozen somewhat boring dance tracks, which at last look had been downloaded almost 500 times. No originality, just loops, done by musicians just trying to learn the program!

There still is Rock & Roll, just check out the clubs that actually still have live music.

 

[johnhenrygalt]

Re: Céline

I'll agree that Céline's English language work tends to be homogenised. However, this is not true of her French language work.

However, there is another Canadian superstar singer who also turns out very homogenised music, namely Shania Twain. However, she escapes the invectives due to her "hotness" factor.

 

[Muddy]

Just one additional moment of horror for all you old rock fans:

The #1 Clay Aitken song - a piece of awful dreck if ever there was one - is co-written by - TA-DAAA!!! - our old rocker friendfrom Montreal, Aldo Nova.

He now lives in Ireland so he's not taxed on the money he makes from crap like this, and the equally ghastly songs he wrote for Celine "I'll sing 50 notes in every bar, because I can" Dion.

 

[Ophelia Black]

The RIAA is a joke

The 'Stealing Music Deprives Artists' argument is bogus. The labels have been screwing both artists and consumers for decades. Interesting how suddenly it's consumers who are screwing the artists and the labels are let right off the hook.

From a recent CNET online article;

Myth No. 5: Every infringing download represents lost sales.
The labels love to recite this statistic in various forms, but anyone with an ounce of common sense can tell you that just because someone was willing to download something for free, it doesn't mean they would have bought the song on an album. Most downloaders grab lots of stuff they would never, in a million years, plunk down their hard-earned money for. Therefore, those downloads do not represent lost sales, no matter what the RIAA's public relations team tells the papers.

Link to full article from CNET below;

http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-6450_7-5081098-1.html?tag=txt

And you know what? There are groups I would never have gone to see live in a million years had I not been able to get a preview without buying an insanely overpriced $15.00 CD. But I'll now buy
a $30 + ticket to see them, and probably buy a $25.00 T-shirt too. And the artists get a better cut of both.

This RIAA crap will go down as one of the most ill-considered public relations moves in industry history.