Week 7 – on Musicophilia, chapters 15 and 23; Manual for the Performance Library, chapters 6 and 7
As much as I would like to find hope in the apparent palliative effects of music on Clive in the case written about in chapter 15, I cannot help finding Clive’s story tremendously sad. Yes, of course it’s interesting and encouraging to know that Clive’s interaction with music seems to aid or improve his memory—although I am very curious to know whether such a strong connection to some other form of expression, (painting? something else altogether?), could stimulate the same sort of slight memory corrective in the face of such absolute memory loss. Much as I do appreciate Sacks’ style and stories, after reading some – such as that of his dream of Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder at the beginning of chapter 23—I cannot help feel that they occasionally ring a little false, a little too perfectly illustrative. Dealing with the topic of the chapter, though, I admit a distance between my experience and those of the people Sacks’ mentions. I have certainly had my dreams continue into my waking day, but I cannot recall music in my dreams; I definitely can’t recall music from my dreams continuing after waking. If this is a widespread phenomenon, I would be interested to know if it especially happens to musicians (by which I mean those of more than the amateurish persuasion, like myself), and further, if there seem to be special causes they have noticed.
As for Girsberger’s work, chapters 6 and 7 provide the specific instructions necessary to distribute music, collect it after its use, and preserve it (in order, and in usable condition over time). Again and again, I repeat that this work is absolutely a valuable tool for the performance librarian, since it provides a very practical, detailed checklist to ensure adequate support for musicians and conscientious handling of library contents for use and reuse.
Week 7 – on various websites
Freepress site, http://www.freepress.net/resources/ownership
This was particularly instructive, especially the section about radio ownership (http://www.freepress.net/ownership/chart/radio) – I’d known of Clear Channel, but had no idea that Disney was such a presence, and hadn’t even heard of the majority (Bertelsmann, Citadel, Entercom, Cumulus). Perhaps most impressive of all was the addition of 2009 revenues for these 9 companies (in excess of $100 billion); while I don’t expect this represents their revenues from radio alone (with companies like Disney, Viacom, and CBS represented, diversification across all media delivery seems more likely to account for those numbers), it doesn’t change the overall point that some very large corporate players have a hold on terrestrial radio, (which previous readings already suggested). I found “The Case Against Media Consolidation” (http://www.stopbigmedia.com/=compendium) especially compelling – although it mostly revisited familiar arguments that are (rightly) used against consolidation and (more) centralized control of many forms of production (cultural and otherwise).
Berklee & Full Sail, http://www.berklee.edu/, http://www.fullsail.edu/
For years, Full Sail has been a destination for my musician friends – a real way to turn a passion for music into a means to earn a living, (a more reliable living than just playing gigs and selling records). Since I’d always known of Full Sail as the place to go to learn how to record, it came as a bit of a surprise to me to see that they offer a range of degrees dealing with some form of cultural product – animation, video game design, film, ‘show production’ – but, of course, it makes sense. This seems very much technical training, but I assume that in the related careers accreditation through a degree from a more traditional university probably is much less relevant than the experience gained here. I had difficulty accessing the Berklee College site, but know of its reputation: it has a substantial legacy for providing a significant musical education – in fact, I thought of it as the Juilliard for the more contemporary-minded. Since I couldn’t get the live page to work, I relied on a cached version and some secondary sources, (including Wikipedia, in the spirit of full disclosure) to fill in the gaps. I wasn’t surprised, following on visiting the Full Sail site, to find that understanding the music business could be part of the curriculum; if The Future of the Music Business has reinforced anything, it is that music is indeed a (big) business, so it makes perfect sense that aspiring (professional) musicians learn this before venturing too far into the professional world. While I remain skeptical of the value of many schools with a celebrated technical side, like the Devrys and ITT Techs of the world, I can see real value in professional (and at least in the case of Berklee, theoretical!) training of such schools as Full Sail and Berklee.
Taxi, http://www.taxi.com/about.html
I have to admit skepticism when I see sites like this. I realize the importance of such intermediaries (or advocates, maybe) within such a large business as music or film, but this site exudes semi-professionalism with its awkward sidebar of self-promoting ads and expressions of customer appreciation. It certainly doesn’t compete with sites from the largest labels with whom Taxi might interact on a musician’s behalf – which brings to mind the poor underdog represented by the attorney with ads on a bus station bench fighting against the mega-corporation. Perhaps this is just a bit of hasty judgment on my part, though, and Taxi is remarkably successful at helping their clients find success with record, film, or TV deals…
Music Biz Academy, http://www.musicbizacademy.com/
While I’m nearly as suspicious of this site as I am of Taxi, I admit to liking the purpose substantially more. Sure, the look reminds me of an infomercial gone web-based, (it looks remarkably similar to the full-page snake-oil ads in newspaper-insert magazines), but it seems crammed with useful information for the aspiring professional musician. It should be noted, though, that there is a marketing angle to this site, (the link from ‘Music Promotion’ redirected me to a page within the bookstore, http://www.musicbizacademy.com/bookstore/htpromotemusic.htm), some valuable information might be gleaned from the free content.
“The Long Tail,” http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.10/tail.html
Only a few words on the long tail – this is a pressing concern in libraries, too, so I’d recommend all get used to the notion of ‘the long tail.’ In some ways, I’ve been especially fond of the concept rearing its head within the marketplace for music – I find it responsible for my favorite Elvis Costello reissues, as well as remastered/reissued records to replace very poor copies I’d spent years hunting down, (all of the Dolly Mixture records, all of the Shoes records). I think we’re all benefiting immensely from an online distribution model (or at least online distribution as one of a number of models), and we can see this through the apparently endless choices we now enjoy: Hulu just began offering (for a price, of course) all of the Criterion content, which itself leveraged a belief in the value of the ‘long tail’ in cleaning up and rereleasing film classics; many, many record labels have begun rereleasing music from the past that has clearly influenced contemporary popular musicians, (I’d look here to David Byrne’s former label, Luaka Bop, as an example, having rediscovered/reissued famous tropicalia (and other) artists like Os Mutantes and Tom Zé, (which, I would argue, also influenced labels like Light in the Attic, http://lightintheattic.net/, to pursue the same agenda … obvious in their reissues, which have been all over the place for the past decade or more – Serge Gainsbourg, Jane Birkin, Karen Dalton, the Monks, the Free Design, and many more!) . Hooray for the long tail!
Google Audio Processing, Music XML, and Gnod
I wonder if the Google Audio Processing projects informed the future apps that can identify a song playing in the background, (as in a store – there’s an iPhone app for this, though not sure if there are comparable other apps). If so, a nice view of research being brought to market. I’m not quite sure I understand MusicXML products, but it seems that MusicXML might produce software that can translate audio files into notation, and perhaps might also be sound editing software so that, for instance, one could use it to create karaoke (vocal-less) tracks – or maybe just pull out a single instrument for play-along practice? Gnod doesn’t seem remarkably different from associating products, (Google Sets, TuneGlue, or the databases that all of these new illustrative applications of associations are based on, like All Music Guide), and I’m just as underwhelmed by my one sample, (I picked three bands and every suggested similar band was either an affiliated band because of a shared member or was on the same label as one of my entered three). I can certainly suggest more relevant suggestions, (even Amazon does a better job, based on what others have viewed/purchased).