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Saturday, July 26, 2014

Downloading music? Never take off...

July 26th – We see it in all aspects of the entertainment business; music, film and theatre. It stifles development and creativity mainly because of two things;
1) These industries are run and financed by people who absolutely no idea how the creative process works, and
2) Their stultified imagination is ruled by money.
I’ve mentioned before about how the movie/TV business works (or doesn’t) about the endless franchise movies and series spin-offs; everyone with even the slightest interest in movies should read Adventures in the Screen Trade by William Goldman or Conversations with My Agent and Set Up, Joke, Set Up, Joke by Rob Long to get a clear picture (pun intended) of why things have turned out like they have. Those on the creative side of the film business make every effort to keep the medium rolling forward, that calibre of writers who gave us Saturday Night and Sunday Morning or The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner or  Whistle Down the Wind; films that had something to say and something to add to the human condition. There have been a few recent successes but, in the main, the visionless production arm remains in the pocket, the fingers wrapped round the wallet…until a ready-made star vehicle pulls into the siding waiting to be filled with vacuous f/x and stupidity that is. Why is that, do you think? Maybe it’s because we know it all now so don’t need any more social mirrors…?
I’ve also touched on the subservient attitude that theatre is taking more and more often over the past twenty-five years. Once there were writers producing plays of the moment, contemporary work that challenged the urban myths. Now it’s predominantly retreads, revivals, musicals about some sleb or pop star (starring some has-been soap star) a two hour wannabe-fest riding on hits of the 40’s – 50’s – 60’s…and remakes of remakes. No risk involved, no decisions on whether something will bring in the punters. Start with a show based on a familiar thing so that people, even before they buy their ticket, feel safe, and then let the star do the rest…
The music industry has also shown a remarkable head-in sand attitude to innovative musical movements over the years. Always an industry that is eager to drag its heels and see what the other guy does, the number of times that new musical movements have passed the A&R men…(that’s A&R…as in Artists and Repertoire BTW…that’s the person who seeks out new artists, signs them to the label and works out a marketing strategy)…have passed the A&R men by as they scramble to find a reason not to sign the hot new thing because they just may be wrong…heaven forbid they should actually make a decision, go out on limb, take a punt.
However, what the music industry did do, which surpassed even their usual timidity, was to at first shake their head at the file-sharing revolution and then try to use their muscle to stop it altogether. Like the introduction of sound to movies the ostriches in the various departments of the leading players took out injunction after injunction, threatening dire punishments to those who refused to cease and desist. Like plugging a Dutch dam with your finger, it was obvious which way the tide was flowing and even more obvious that their defences would be breached but still they railed. They told everyone who’d listen that downloading of music onto a computer would never take off, would never make inroads into the CD sales market, would never become the primary method of obtaining new music, old music, any kind of music… like our politicians who have absolutely no experience in the department they actually run, it really makes you wonder how they get and keep their jobs, don’t it.
On this day in 2000 a federal judge ordered Napster to cease trading copyrighted material within 48hrs; a decree that the dealers in music trumpeted as a massive victory and as far as they were concerned spelt the end of file-sharing as we know it…yeah, right…well done everyone, treble bonuses all round. 

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