nmm wrote:
Mike Rivers wrote:

Doesn't anyone have anything to say about the last couple of days'
Doonesbury strips? Or is there nothing more to say?

Jimmy Thudpucker speaks the truth.

http://www.doonesbury.com/strip/dailydose/index.html

--



It's an intresting concept that Thudpucker is putting out. I'd like to
see the investment vs. return numbers for Reuban Stutter, and Kelly
Clarkson before making a call on the future of recorded music.

I've already heard that the LOw-Fi aspects and popularity of MP3s are
killing the R&D budgets at recording equipment manufacters


Many years ago I conceived an idea for a band that would not produce albums; the only way to hear
them would be at concerts and through bootleg recording people might make. I never got very far with
the concept because the bands I'd form wouldn't last and I am a recording engineer and love the process.

But at a more "local" level, many bands are doing just this. They didn't and don't have the money to
make recordings so the only way to hear them is to "experience" them live. You have to go see them.

The whole Thudpucker thing is really nothing new. We talked about the dynamic of how the record
labels were (and continue) ripping off artists. This conversation never ends. Sinead O'Connor was
quite vocal about the cost of production vs. the royalties paid to musicians being so completely out
of balance that she threatened to walk away. I haven't heard much from her after the whole Pope
thing years back, so I suppose in some way or another she may be sticking to her principles, maybe
even doing her stuff independently. Don't know.

Anyway, at the core of this argument is the fact that the bands that are stubborn enough and keep
going, if they have anything at all to offer, will generally succeed in having a career -- short or
long -- at a national/international level. The weeding out takes place automatically. That the
record labels have their own agenda, in my opinion, that in a way they are dictating what we are
going to like, what we will listen to, and for how long, is not so far fetched when you turn on the
radio and listen to what's being played. Do people who have an appreciation for music actually
listen to that stuff?? I wonder...

--fletch