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We, the audience series; (part 4) the lost audience – how the music business broke faith with its main supporters (II)
Independent record labels can create the music that will reach the rock-and-roll adult, and they already do. Putumayo does very well with...
20somethingmedia
Dec 8, 20204 min read


We, the audience series; (part 3) the lost audience – how the music business broke faith with its main supporters (I)
One music industry expert recalls; When I was a kid (we’re talking Bedrock here, folks: stone cars you drove with your feet, birds on...
20somethingmedia
Dec 1, 20203 min read


We, the audience; (part 2) a touch of grey – boomers grow up and grow old (continued)
Nearly 20 years later, the leading edge of this key demographic faces turning 60, and the bulk are in their 40s. the generation that...
20somethingmedia
Nov 24, 20203 min read


We, the audience; (part 1) a touch of grey – boomers grow up and grow old
Pete Townshend, at the tender age of 23, wrote an anthem for his age called “My Generation.” One of the most controversial lines in the...
20somethingmedia
Nov 17, 20203 min read


Technology in music series; (part 15) Hardware and software – on demand and on your hip (V)
Record producers not only had to concentrate on where to edit hit singles, but also had to separate out 15-second snippets of songs for...
20somethingmedia
Nov 10, 20203 min read


Technology in music series; (part 14) Hardware and software – on demand and on your hip (IV)
For the most part, the companies that made these products tended to be small. They also were generally run by technologists intent on...
20somethingmedia
Nov 3, 20203 min read


Technology in music series; (part 13) Hardware and software – on demand and on your hip (III)
Another piece of musical techno-geek wet-dream hardware announced in May that became vapourware by September was the Indrema. While on...
20somethingmedia
Oct 26, 20203 min read


Technology in music series; (part 12) Hardware and software – on demand and on your hip (II)
Unfortunately, while downloadable digital music had broken through the underground like spring crocuses, via the peer-to-peer services on...
20somethingmedia
Oct 20, 20203 min read


Technology in music series; (part 11) Hardware and software – on demand and on your hip (I)
Say what you will about his music or his politics, Ice-T is smart. When he addressed the MP3.com convention in San Diego in 2000, he...
20somethingmedia
Oct 13, 20203 min read


Technology in music series; (part 10) the internet – friend, foe or just a tool? (V)
Of course, just because legal downloads were now available, it didn’t stop people from downloading from P2P sites. Estimates put the...
20somethingmedia
Oct 6, 20205 min read


Technology in music series; (part 9) the internet – friend, foe or just a tool? (IV)
Some wonder if the record business can come back from these mistakes. Many fear that a decade of free downloads, coupled with the sense...
20somethingmedia
Sep 29, 20204 min read


Technology in music series; (part 8) the internet – friend, foe or just a tool? (III)
Nor is viral marketing on the internet the sole domain of rock and pop bands. Country artist Michael Lee Austin created an internet-based...
20somethingmedia
Sep 22, 20203 min read


Technology in music series; (part 7) the internet – friend, foe or just a tool? (II)
Todd Rundgren is another very technical fellow, an early adapter of most things technological. In the early 1990s, he presaged the way...
20somethingmedia
Sep 15, 20203 min read


Technology in music series; (part 6) the internet – friend, foe or just a tool? (I)
We’ve already established that the record industry likes to blame new technology for its woes. In the 1930s, the culprit that nearly...
20somethingmedia
Sep 8, 20203 min read


Technology in music series; (part 5) from one mic to 128 tracks (V)
The rise of home studios and inexpensive digital equipment wrought yet another major change in the recording business. At my right elbow...
20somethingmedia
Sep 1, 20203 min read


Technology in music series; (part 4) from one mic to 128 tracks (IV)
As of this writing, a good console could cost a million dollars or more. With the cost of the audio accessories not included on the...
20somethingmedia
Aug 25, 20203 min read


Technology in music series; (part 3) from one mic to 128 tracks (III)
Four-track recording became de rigueur around 1964. With each subsequent bump in technology, the process of making a record became both...
20somethingmedia
Aug 18, 20204 min read


Technology in music series; (part 2) from one mic to 128 tracks (II)
But as in Miller’s day, it was important that the artists came in prepared. Sessions for a recording were still a matter of hours rather...
20somethingmedia
Aug 11, 20203 min read


Technology in music series; (part 1) from one mic to 128 tracks (I)
Amusic industry expert and acclaimed author, Hank Bordowitz, shares his story about the role technology has played in music throughout...
20somethingmedia
Aug 4, 20203 min read


Retailing records series; (part 10) A voyage down the Amazon.com (continued)
This led Music Boulevard to start an experiment in 1997. It was aware of the collegiate using MP3 to exchange music files. Why not, the...
20somethingmedia
Jul 28, 20203 min read
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