Woob 1194

Woob 1194, released back in August 1994 on Em:t Records, remains a triumph of ambient music. Still sounding as fresh as it did when originally released it seamlessly mixes together world music, dub and a selection of vocal pieces into an otherworldly experience.

The opening 32 minute colossus entitled On Earth uses middle-eastern tinged vocals, haunting synths and a chilled out drum beat to create a mind expanding musical experience. If you're curious about ambient music, this piece of art by Paul Frankland is an excellent introduction to the genre.

The album was followed up by Woob 4495, a far more experimental album and a worthy addition but far from the masterpiece that is 1194.

Sharing Resources

An amazing number of resources abound all over the internet concerned with sharing music throughout the community. Wikis, blogs and audio platforms exist throughout the internet offering the opinions and music of hosts all over the globe.

http://musicblog.wikia.com/wiki/Music_Blog_Wiki is a wiki designed to help music bloggers share ideas amongst each other. A growing site, it seeks to gain postings to use as a knowledge resource for internet savvy musicians.

http://soundcloud.com/ is an audio platform that lets artists upload music to be heard and shared by listeners. It allows listeners to easily link to the page and also download, purchase and popularise the artists it host. With a vibrant and active user base it is a very useful resource.

http://blog.elbo.ws/ 
http://blackdownsoundboy.blogspot.com/ 
http://nicenoiz.blogspot.com/

These blogs are MP3blogs hosting music scoured from the internet by their hosts. They offer opinions and news and sometimes offer the option to directly download new tracks. They tend to receive a loyal amount of regular site traffic provided they regularly update.

Following the Mainstream

Having been in attendance at one of the shows on Rusko's continuing North American tour, I was greatly pleased to see a sold out gig. With a variety of guests filling out before the much anticipated headliner, the venue slowly grew more and more packed before reaching max capacity. this can only spell bigger (and possibly better) things for the world of EDM.

The night showed the great diversification of music with everything from popular internet memes (see Antoine Dodson) to classic video game soundtracks and brand new material being spliced into the proceedings. Together with the main musical attraction, a meshing of lights, sound and images occurred. This shows the huge amount of preparation and business acumen needed in the world of music as well as its huge commercial appeal and profitability. Being sold was the personal releases and merchandise of the musicians involved alongside copious amounts of alcohol.

The advertising, marketing, preparation, set-up and scheduling all built up towards a successful night. This goes to show the tremendous amount of planning and business knowledge needed in the business that helps support everyone from the venues, their employees and suppliers to the artists and record companies behind them. Rusko's world tour continues.

Blogging about Music

http://www.musicbusinessblog.com/ A Music Business Blog by Jason Feinberg.

A remarkable business blog by Joseph Feinberg offering advice and commentary to fledgling artists (and anyone else) about surviving in the music world. A well labeled and categorised business blog, utilising a simple design, the site offers the opinions and web-trawled facts found by the host. It is also remarkably alive, with regular visitors offering comments on each new posting. Topics include general music business, management, marketing, opinions on artists and the emerging co-operation of the music world and the internet. Provided are links to useful resources and additional reviews and opinions from other blogs.

The host seems informed and opinionated, having had articles published for other media companies and is involved (at various levels of influence) in a number of music companies. His writing style is casual yet informative and he keeps himself busy and well-informed with news in the music business sphere.

However by the hosts own admittance, updates can be sporadic and the site's relatively simple but uninspired appearance, though clear and legible, is hardly attractive and interesting. Posts are usually well-constructed however some can consist of simply a small descriptive line and a link seemingly to keep the site updated. Despite this, the overriding professionalism of the site and continuous, useful information makes the site a trusted blog to return to. The site is well worth perusing for anyone looking to get into the music business and indeed, anyone into music at all.

Sample Piracy Pt.II

The enormous social impact of the internet has enabled the globe to share information in an unprecedented manner. Access to news, history and culture is now but a click away for the billions of internet users who stay interconnected throughout the vast networks of the internet. The almost infinite ability of the internet to share information has caused a number of problems. With seemingly no boundaries music, movies, books, pictures, programs and all manner of digitally stored information can be downloaded by any internet user. Illegal file-sharing has been the subject of an intensive campaign in the last decade, with organizations such as the RIAA bringing lawsuits against thousands of individuals and organizations alike. The RIAA states that music piracy around the world accounts for $12.5 billion in economic losses every year (RIAA Piracy: Online and on the street) and is working aggressively to combat this for the benefit of the recording industry.

This past decade has seen the rise of the internet this millennium and with it coincided the growth of EDM. Websites such as MySpace and YouTube have helped spread music and popularise artists, helping them get publicity where in previous decades they would never have reached the global audience that the internet has enabled them to do. The internet has let many artists get a hold of recorded music that otherwise they would never have heard let alone be able to use. And with a history steeped in borrowing music from other sources, legitimately or otherwise, it would seem almost hypocritical for EDM artists to be against the file-sharing networks that have helped spread music throughout the interconnected globe. I have no doubt that the internet has made a large impact on the recording industry, but if you take music to be an art form, then freedom of expression and the desire to be heard should take precedence over commercial fulfillment.

I, myself, would like to take the RZA's philosophy: 

"Naw. When I make music, I make it to be heard, personally. And, if somebody download it, if they heard it, then my job was delivered. Of course I love to make the money. I get million dollar album budgets, so of course there's money involved with it. But, personally, as a musician, as an artist, the first thing is to be seen and heard. If you're not seen and heard, who cares? I was talking to Jim Jarmusch and he was like, somebody see his film, the guy's happy. He don't care. He wants somebody to see his art and appreciate it and that's how I feel about my music also. I never got pissed off at the Internet kids with the downloading. In fact, I told them, 'Help yourself. Have a good time'." (An interview with the RZA)

Retrieved on October 13, 2010 from http://www.vaporsmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/rza.jpg 

Sample Piracy Pt.I

Since its birth, sampling of other musical sources has been a foundational bedrock of EDM. Sampling is the process of taking a portion (however large or small) of music and using it, sometimes in a substantially re-edited format, in a new composition. Indeed whole songs and even whole albums have based their success on the practice of sampling. Endtroducing..... (Mo'Wax Records, 1996), the debut album from DJ Shadow, is credited as being one of the first albums made completely from other sources; amongst the, jazz and hip-hop, television shows and interviews, as well as old, obscure funk and R&B records. Remixes too have been a key staple of the musical genre and have continued to fuel the music's expansion since its earliest and biggest influences in hip-hop and dub.

However, the sampling of music has often led to strong legal contention. Many times, when it comes to remixing and sampling, artists do not seek the permission of the original artist. In many cases this has led to the original artist claiming copyright infringement and taking legal action against the sampling artist. What exactly constitutes copyright infringement is relatively ambiguous. However Bridgeport Music, Inc. v. Dimension Film, 410 F.3d 792 (6th Cir. 2005), (Full text from FindLaw) a recent court case  has helped define what constitutes as a violation of copyright law. This led to another landmark case Metall auf Metall (Kraftwerk, et al. v. Moses Pelham, et al.), Decision of the German Federal Supreme Court no. I ZR 112/06 (Full text translation from SSRN) which quoted the earlier case and said that the quantity of music sampled is irrelevant in deciding whether a copyright infringement has occurred.

But what should constitute copyright infringement? There are thousands of amateur remixes being circulated on websites like YouTube and many more in circulation amongst touring DJs. Should action be taken against these countless re-interpratations? I should like to think of music in artistic terms and not the commercially lucrative way that large corporations and miserly artists use it for. Surely culture and within it, music, should be used as a way of human expression, exploration and progression; not a tool of financial gain. Or maybe this is simply naïve idealisation and not proper business thinking.

Into the Mainstream

It is always fascinating to see an interest of yours grow from humble beginnings and then mature as you closely follow it's growth. In the ever evolving world of EDM; there lurked a number of underground genres, but the burgeoning popularity of Dubstep has been bringing it to the forefront. Dubstep, a genre with roots in Jamaican dub and UK Garage, and originating in London in the United Kingdom, has been gaining momentum, influencing popular acts and making stars of it's most successful exponents. With thousands of videos appearing on YouTube and many websites devoted to the new genre, it's rise in public consciousness can be relatively easily traced. Record labels concentrated on the genre have also been springing up on a transatlantic level between the UK and USA. Dubstep it seems is ready to break into the mainstream.

Rusko, real name Christopher Mercer, a shining star and pioneer of the genre, currently embarked on a North American tour (coming to Edmonton tomorrow), is making waves in the mainstream. Having worked with such major stars as Rihanna and Lady Gaga, and promoting his debut album (O.M.G.!; Mad Decent, 2010), his stardom is set to grow and the genre he has helped to influence, along with it.

But is this new commercial appeal good for the genre? Certainly, from a business sense the genre would appear to be an untapped resource ready to be exploited. And for loyal fans who have followed the genre since it's inception, will they be pleased by the new found popularisation and commercial tones the genre is set to take on? I think it will be interesting to see how the will continue to evolve.

Retrieved on October 13, 2010 from http://www.dourfestival.be/en/artist/detail/Rusko