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Everything popular is wrong: Making it in electronic music

littlewhiteearbuds.com

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Re: Everything popular is wrong: Making it in electronic music

#3

Post by chipsy »

tintin wrote: post #2

Posted this because I think it applies to a lot more than music alone.

Indeed, it suggests something very core to entrepreneurship - the good money is always in new places, not existing ones. Oneupmanship in an existing field always turns into a game of capital and manpower, bigger risks for less reward. But "breaking out of the box" and finding that new place can be a really tough thing too.

Re: Everything popular is wrong: Making it in electronic music

#4

Post by JonnieCache »

The electronic music scene has always had lots of very unusual and interesting business models going on, right back to the late 80s. People in the early rave scene in london were doing stuff in the early 90s that looks modern today.

Consider the idea that there have always been some records out there that DJs consider too good to even play, except at very particular and infrequent times and places. There are artists who keep their identities and even their music and their entire existence secret at the behest of their label manager. This is not just artistic preciousness, it is a key part of a very well-tested business model. There is lots of music out there that is too good to be released, if every guy on the street had a copy it would devalue it and hasten its passing into unfashionability.

It's more than just controlling supply (although thats a lot of it,) its about making the people that have managed/been allowed to hear the mythical secret tunes feel special, part of a lucky few. They are in a sense indebted to the DJ, even though they paid to go and see them perform.

They will tell all their friends, "and then halfway through Blackdown's set he drew for these unlabelled CDRs, it was too much. I've never heard anything like it. I asked him who it was and he wouldn't tell me." They will then post the same thing on message boards, asking if anyone else knew who the tunes were by. Many times, I have paid to go and see a person play just because I know they have access to tunes that nobody else does. That could be the only time I ever get a chance to hear those tunes. That could be the only time those tunes are ever played.

I plan to write some blog posts about this stuff at some point.

Re: Everything popular is wrong: Making it in electronic music

#6

Post by seanedevine »

JonnieCache wrote: post #4

The electronic music scene has always had lots of very unusual and interesting business models going on, right back to the late 80s. People in the early rave scene in london were doing stuff in the early 90s that looks modern today. Consider the idea that there have always been some records out there that DJs consider too good to even play, except at very particular and infrequent times and places. There are artists…

I know Aphex Twin was notorious for this and he even got to a point where anything released was run of the mill, middle of the road, remix stuff and was even entitled "26 mixes for cash".

Re: Everything popular is wrong: Making it in electronic music

#8

Post by bittersweet »

JonnieCache wrote: post #4

The electronic music scene has always had lots of very unusual and interesting business models going on, right back to the late 80s. People in the early rave scene in london were doing stuff in the early 90s that looks modern today. Consider the idea that there have always been some records out there that DJs consider too good to even play, except at very particular and infrequent times and places. There are artists…

I've experienced this a lot while going to Dubstep parties, there are a lot of DJs that indeed have those special ocassion records laying around.

First party I went to a DJ called Skream played a track, later I found out it's one that he would never release and has a bit of a legendary status on the boards etc surrounding Dubstep. It was indeed amazing to experience it.

Re: Everything popular is wrong: Making it in electronic music

#9

Post by JonnieCache »

bittersweet wrote: post #8
JonnieCache wrote: post #4

The electronic music scene has always had lots of very unusual and interesting business models going on, right back to the late 80s. People in the early rave scene in london were doing stuff in the early 90s that looks modern today. Consider the idea that there have always been some records out there that DJs consider too good to even play, except at very particular and infrequent times and places. There are artists…

I've experienced this a lot while going to Dubstep parties, there are a lot of DJs that indeed have those special ocassion records laying around. First party I went to a DJ called Skream played a track, later I found out it's one that he would never release and has a bit of a legendary status on the boards etc surrounding Dubstep. It was indeed amazing to experience it.

It should be noted that some of the time this is because the tracks in question have a massive, unclearable sample from a major label artist.

Eg. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RJy2-F2irA

It pains me that I will likely never get to own this record. However I have already paid to go and see someone who played it, and this was certainly part of my decision to do so. They've probably made more money off me from that than they would have if I bought the flac.

EDIT: research shows that this track is now in fact coming out. Rave music has two solutions to the problem of unclearable samples: the classic, unlabelled vinyl sold direct to shops out the back of a car, and the more modern free download leaked to twitter. The former is dying out unfortunately.

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