At the point the article should be getting to the good part, it says:
"However, the e-commerce part of the equation would take another year to implement (which we will cover in an upcoming post). ... Buy the book".
Telling Lies: Bowie and Online Music Distribution in 1996
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Re: Telling Lies: Bowie and Online Music Distribution in 1996
#22The trouble is that piracy can run halfway around the world while the legitimate distribution networks are just getting their shoes on. Around that same time frame -- summer of 1996 -- is when I saw an item on the Damaged Cybernetics (remember them?) web site that read: "We are investigating the use of MPEG Layer III compression for music piracy." Those investigations bore major fruit, because by the tine Napster emerged, distribution networks of MP3s (and sometimes other formats like VQF) on IRC channels modelled after warez swapping channels were well entrenched. Napster started off as a search engine for material on such channels.
Pirates thus shaped the early years of music distribution and exert significant influence today. Consider for example, the fact that people bristled so much at DRM on music that Apple was forced to remove it from iTunes purchases, whereas DRM is normal and even expected for digitally distributed movies and books. (I was there for the early ebook scene too; readers celebrated DRM as it allowed their favorite authors to be compensated and helped prevent them from being scared off the platform entirely.)
Re: Telling Lies: Bowie and Online Music Distribution in 1996
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
Verbasizer - a sentence randomizer app he designed for writing the album’s lyrics.
See too Gysin/Burroughs c. 1959.[0] Bowie would have been ~12yo. [0] https://www.languageisavirus.com/creative-writing-techniques...
Apt reference to Burroughs, as he and Bowie ended up meeting in the early/mid '70s, and Bowie employed the cut-up technique somewhat often on his albums afterwards (starting with Diamond Dogs, if I'm not mistaken). So the Verbasizer was essentially Bowie's attempt to modernize a creative process he was already very fond of.
Re: Telling Lies: Bowie and Online Music Distribution in 1996
#24One reason for the existence of albums were distribution costs: it was cheaper to produce, ship and store 10 songs on a single disc than shipping 10 separate discs.
The music industry in the 90s was so dead-set on albums because albums were their cash cow. You see, when CDs came out, the industry realized it was the perfect gimmick to sell you your whole music collection all over again, now in crystal-clear digital audio. So much so that new industry labeling standards had to be made just to distinguish between re-releases and new all-digital recordings[0]. Problem is, you can o…
> the original plan for CD singles was to package them on smaller discs
It wasn't just a plan. CD (Maxi) Singles were released in European markets in the 80s.[0]
[0]https://www.discogs.com/release/126156-Madonna-Like-A-Prayer...
Re: Telling Lies: Bowie and Online Music Distribution in 1996
#25In 1997 or 1998, I had a 486, and to play an MP3 (which of course took hours to download), I'd have to exit out of Windows into DOS and do literally NOTHING else but play the command line mp3 playback app I found.
Re: Telling Lies: Bowie and Online Music Distribution in 1996
#26Still remember working for a wireless company fixing phones as a repair tech. One of our steady clients was Prince's studio Flyte Time. Terry Lewis would often come in and I'd loved talking to him about music. One evening before I was closing up, he dropped in with Prince's phone that needed a fast repair. I finally asked him what the deal with Prince and his music was. The Warner Brothers kerfuffle, and all the dram…
Taylor Swift has demonstrated her genius as a businesswoman within the industry by simply re-recording her back catalogue as "Taylor's Versions" which the record company had no rights to -- also a badass example of a woman taking back control of her creative output from an industry dedicated to exploiting the likes of her. (Talk to a female musician if you know one. Women have few options but to let themselves be exploited, sexually and otherwise, if they want to progress in the industry.)
Prince could have done the same, but AFAICT he never did. Wonder why? Did he figure the rereleases wouldn't sell?
"Weird Al" Yankovic was one of the first major artists to switch from an album-based format to just releasing singles as they were recorded. Ironic, because Al was always taking good-natured jabs at Prince for not permitting him to parody any of his music. ("Word Crimes" having one example of such).
Re: Telling Lies: Bowie and Online Music Distribution in 1996
#27Still remember working for a wireless company fixing phones as a repair tech. One of our steady clients was Prince's studio Flyte Time. Terry Lewis would often come in and I'd loved talking to him about music. One evening before I was closing up, he dropped in with Prince's phone that needed a fast repair. I finally asked him what the deal with Prince and his music was. The Warner Brothers kerfuffle, and all the dram…
Taylor Swift has demonstrated her genius as a businesswoman within the industry by simply re-recording her back catalogue as "Taylor's Versions" which the record company had no rights to -- also a badass example of a woman taking back control of her creative output from an industry dedicated to exploiting the likes of her. (Talk to a female musician if you know one. Women have few options but to let themselves be exp…
> Women have few options but to let themselves be exploited, sexually and otherwise, if they want to progress in the industry
Weinstein and JayZ taught us that plenty of men have the same problem...
Re: Telling Lies: Bowie and Online Music Distribution in 1996
#28Still remember working for a wireless company fixing phones as a repair tech. One of our steady clients was Prince's studio Flyte Time. Terry Lewis would often come in and I'd loved talking to him about music. One evening before I was closing up, he dropped in with Prince's phone that needed a fast repair. I finally asked him what the deal with Prince and his music was. The Warner Brothers kerfuffle, and all the dram…
Taylor Swift has demonstrated her genius as a businesswoman within the industry by simply re-recording her back catalogue as "Taylor's Versions" which the record company had no rights to -- also a badass example of a woman taking back control of her creative output from an industry dedicated to exploiting the likes of her. (Talk to a female musician if you know one. Women have few options but to let themselves be exp…
In the late 90s it was still very hard to be seen and heard. The labels still controlled the pipeline to an extent which isn't possible now.
Re: Telling Lies: Bowie and Online Music Distribution in 1996
#29Still remember working for a wireless company fixing phones as a repair tech. One of our steady clients was Prince's studio Flyte Time. Terry Lewis would often come in and I'd loved talking to him about music. One evening before I was closing up, he dropped in with Prince's phone that needed a fast repair. I finally asked him what the deal with Prince and his music was. The Warner Brothers kerfuffle, and all the dram…
But wasn't this already what the dance/edm scene was already doing? I don't think it's particularly ahead of it's time.
Edit: or more specifically the entire vinyl album history was built on EP/SP releases no?
This seems more like a CD/90s back step, and the idea was to just go back to older release styles.
Re: Telling Lies: Bowie and Online Music Distribution in 1996
#301999 was probably the year that online distribution really took off with Napster catching the labels unprepared (Apple’s iTunes Music Store did a lot to prove to the labels that people would actually pay for music downloads, although it would be years before legal DRM-free downloads became a reality). I had a handful of downloaded music files that I acquired in 1998–9, but I rarely listened to them because other than…
Aux out of pc into your home audio system did the trick. CDs were getting soooo cheap back then you could just burn mixes and cd players started to put in direct mp3 compatibility around then. I grew up a geek though, so this probably just came easier to me back then, but the high quality options haven't changed much in the last 20 years as far as audio is concerned. Just the proliferation of SoC devices has eased the playback access.