~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ eye WEEKLY August 11 1994 Toronto's arts newspaper .....free every Thursday ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ EYE NET EYE NET MUSICIANS OF THE WORLD UNITE! You have nothing to lose but your labels by K.K. CAMPBELL Back in May, eye Net reported how Burlington band The Banned uploaded their single, "Karla And Paul," to cyberspace. The song, about Homolka's deal-making with the Crown, was refused airplay by radio stations. Screw them. Get it from the net. Judge for yourself. In July, Aerosmith's label Geffen decided to emulate groups like The Banned. Aerosmith's tune "Head First" was made available on CompuServe for one week. A hefty bugger of a file, almost 5 megs zipped. "Head First" is no longer available through CompuServe, but it can be found in eye's music directory -- gopher.io.org or www.io.org/eye. (You'll also find The Banned and a couple of local bands there. More to come. To store your songs/samples/bios, write eye@io.org or call 971-6776 x.311.) "Head First" was recorded at an unnecessarily high quality -- 22 KHz (44KHz being "CD-quality"). Most songs on the net are recorded at 8/11 KHz -- tinny AM radio quality, good enough to judge a band, shit for regular listening. The idea: if a person likes your sound, they fork over the bucks for a good copy. "I guess this scares record labels -- music getting to people immediately, without the clutter of marketing machinery, hype and demographic reports," Arizona's Keith Kehrer (kamakaze@ramp.com) told eye -- email him for info on the MusicLink Musicians Network. Kehrer even envisions "online recording studios." Tyson Macaulay (ah044@freenet.carleton.ca) is setting up an indie net.distribution service in Ottawa, with Shake Records. Macaulay helped bring the federal industry ministry online. "This could completely revolutionize the music industry," he agrees. "No more signing your life away to a major label to get distribution. If the net keeps growing the way it is, a local band can get worldwide distribution. Small bands with small budgets can do big things." Denis McGrath, segment producer with CITY-TV's MediaTelevision (mediatv@mail.north.net), says most record company people are "blissfully unaware what's happening; and those that know are so scared they don't want to delve into it any further." They placate themselves with irrational assurances the net is a fad, or digital computer files that decrease in quality when re-transmitted. James Macfarlane (digitar@io.org), columnist for The Computer Paper, agrees the music industry is due for a shake-up, but so are all consumer products, not just music. "Direct from manufacturer to consumer. Down the road, there'll be no retail level as we understand it." Debbie Rix, publicity/promo honcho with MCA Concerts Canada, agrees the industry is nervous about what Geffen did. "Music companies have one salable item: music. Everything else is given away pretty much free: videos, in-store appearances, bios, photos, etc. If songs are given away free, what's left?" But Rix predicts people will not send money to small online distributors once a few charlatans spoil the party. Right now, it's 1967 and the Summer of Love. How long before scammers move in and paranoia kills the scene? BREAK THE MARCONI LOCK The net may also help snap the stultifying Marconi Lock, what McGrath calls the "Eric Clapton-Mariah Carey-Phil Collins-Michael Bolton-Unholy Alliance" that lords over radio. Rix agrees, to a point. "Look at Canadian radio: lots of talk, lots of classic rock. Try getting the Dayglo Abortions played." Which is why many people instinctively recoil from major-label hype. I liked Nirvana when first hearing Bleach on CKLN's Aggressive Rock. When they were picked up and subjected to ram-it-down- their-throat promotional blasts, I simply stopped listening. Some argue this is silly -- you like the music or don't. Bullshit. Rejecting hype is a healthy defence mechanism. Without it, you're a hopeless dupe. And that's the appeal of the net -- lateral cross-pollination, circumvention of verticalized/monopolized sound. I'm not alone. TV ratings fall while Internet connectivity soars. HOLY TRINITY Last week, eye Net mentioned news media's Holy Trinity of instant net coverage: pedophilia, piracy and pornography. As the net offers opportunity for unauthorized transmission of music files, Jim Carroll (jcarroll@jacc.com), co-author of the bestselling Canadian Internet Handbook, agrees net.cops could result from an industry-fed anti-piracy media barrage. But so what? "Face it, the technology is outstripping the ability for anyone to deal with it. It defeats centralized control structures. What's to prevent me from being a smart hacker and taking a CD-ROM that plays music, copying the digital bits to hard drive, then uploading them somewhere?" Business Week recently did an article predicting Canadians should have the equivalent of 64-gig chips by 2010 -- compared to the 4-meg average now. "You should be able to load the entire Aerosmith discography into computer memory with that," Carroll grins. Speedier lines will decrease transmission time exponentially. McGrath thinks the music industry might engage in backroom jockeying to kill the medium, like it did digital audio tape (DAT). Right now, there are a lot of steps in using the net. Mass popularity requires a handy, inexpensive device that does it all automatically for the consumer, McGrath says then writes the digital file to a playback medium, like CD. "The music industry might very well be in a position to stall or even stop the production of just this device -- like DAT." McGrath says music companies have another motive to kill pure digital distribution, … la the net. "Without physical distribution of CDs, consumers will ask: how come producing a CD costs $2 yet sells for $16? It's common knowledge a CD is now cheaper to make than vinyl was. Right there, alone, record companies are in real trouble." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Retransmit freely in cyberspace Author holds standard copyright Full issue of eye available in archive ==> gopher.io.org or ftp.io.org Mailing list available http://www.io.org/eye eye@io.org "Break the Gutenberg Lock..." 416-971-8421