We dont want you to start thinking we worship Stebe Albini, no no. But browsing a few of the clips of him on You Tube we found this one, and we thought it was well worth posting. In it, he advises artists and bands to handle and manage as much to do with their band as possible, as this leaves you in control to make the decisions which will have a large effect on how you develop your music. The “system”, by which he means the industry built up around providing services to bands (booking agents, tour managers, publicity people) is designed largely to support itself. A provocative clip, to be sure, and a somewhat prophetic one. 5 years ago maintaining control over your music through “DIY” management would be a harder feat that it is today. With all the new services popping daily to help artists and bands with not only managing their band (Bandize), but marketing it (social networking sites, music sharing platforms, reverbnation) and distributing their music, the tools and support for artists who which to “go it alone” have never been more available.

The term “unsigned” has historically been used by the music business as an almost derogatory remark to denote artists and bands who haven’t yet signed to a label, be the label independent or major. Almost as if to say that the band isn’t “good enough” to be offered a record deal or that since they haven’t signed a deal, they have not yet reached “success”. There are a number of things wrong with this.

Firstly, there are many great bands and artists without record deals playing superb music on local scenes and circuits around the world. Playing smaller and more intimate gigs, they are the lifeblood of local scenes and perform a important cultural role. Moreover, the internet has served to make a lot more music open to discover by a lot more people, and we realise there is a wealth of talent out there untapped by record labels. Being signed to a label is by no means a necessary measure of an artist’s talent or their capacity to create great music.

Secondly, there are a number significant benefits to the independence associated with being unsigned, and it is possible to enjoy a successful career in music without signing to a Record Label.

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One of the great dynamics of the digital music age is word of mouth. The sheer inter-connectivity of the internet and the ease of which information flows from people to people makes the spread of opinion from one person to another far easier than even before. Be in viral emails, the domino effect of bloggers picking up on what others are writing, a tweet or a trivial conversation on a messaging service – information, and  opinions, spread almost without effort.

Today we want to talk about one way in which word of mouth is being used, albeit quite surreptitiously, to organise and filter music. We want to talk about the AudioScrobbler, and what it means to scrobble. Before proceeding, lets dispense with the “word of mouth” label and call it “recommendation”, since the communicating is not actually done through speech (how old fashioned!). “Scrobbling” in itself is quite straightforward. When you scrobble music on services like Last FM, the information about what artists you are listening to is transferred to the Last FM database. Now what does this have to do with Recommending? Well, the clever chaps at Last FM can use this data in quite cunning ways. By using all the collected scrobble data, they can get a pretty detailed understanding of peoples listening tastes. They can create personalized radio stations, recommend playlists by other users, and chose the tracks which, by looking at what other people listen to, there is every chance that you will like.

The dynamics of this way of profiling music tastes lends well to music discovery. It helps artists because their music will be played to people who have similar listening tastes to people who listen to it already, their fans. Also, by enabling people to view and exchange playlists with other users who share their tastes, it can invoke curiosity about bands on their play list which they haven’t heard. Overall, the Audio Scrobbler is an archetypal example of how the digital music environment is using collective wisdom of individual taste to better how people can engage and consume new music.

There has been talk recently about whether the internet is making the “hit” irrelevant. The manufacturing of the “hit” is associated with the times where major Record Labels had an impressive control over consumer behaviour. It was that elusive formula which guaranteed blockbusters, that formula which enabled their marketing departments to create and predict demand for music to an almost scientific certainty.

However, now the ideology of the hit seems to have lost it power. As the story goes, by the year 2000, a new autonomous realm largely outside the record industries control was beginning to take a toll on the hits effectiveness. This new realm was not based around the “cult of the mainstream”, could not be cracked by mass marketing strategies; this new realm was the internet. The internet is the “hits” worst nightmare. The internet has produced far more choice in what music is available. Consumers became less susceptive to the neatly packaged mass marketed mega bands, now able to exercise more freedom in what music they put on their play list. WIthin the internet developed a whole new culture, one of file sharing, ipods, bloggers, myspace, home recording, user recommendations, net hypes, podcasts…No longer satisfied with the limited music available through the tradition channels, music taste, and the identifying process involved, has become far more diversified. What was once the cult of the mainstream has now fragmented to a dazzling array of subgenres each with their own “micro-hits”. These days, the “top 40” has become irrelevant to the new generation of internet savy music fans, who actively engage with music in diverse ways; the cult of the mainstream has become the cult of the “niche”.

So does this signal the end of the “hit”? Yes, well, kind of…its hard to say. The internet music community is growing steadily, as is the digital download market, which is growing exponentially. For many, the authority of the traditional “hit” seems superfluous compared to the massive amount of choice the internet offers listeners. The “hit” will remain in some sense, but it seems likely that the mechanics helping to produce it will have changed to become more in line with the online environment.

We are excited to announce that one of the Sweden´s foremost media news sites has written about Record Union!  Dagens Media (translated Todays Media) is well respected for providing the low down on innovative new internet media enterprises and marketing ideas. For you who speak Swedish, you can view the article here. We are very pleased for the exposure, and hope this will prompt others to write about our service, which will be up and running shortly!

Interestingly, the article draws a parallel between Record Union´s goal to democratize the distribution music, and Spotify, a streaming service which is democratizing the consumption of music. Spotify allows unlimited streaming of music from a vast and ever expanding library, all for a fixed and very affordable monthly cost which guarantees every artist a cut. Record Union and Spotify are going to work with each other in the future to make sure lots of indie and niche music has the chance to make its way into the Spotify library.

Francis and the Lights, a New York based band (whose music is best heard or seen than described – it’s really quite special) did something very intriguing recently. Feeling no pressure to sign to a record label, who may wish to exert external control over their creations, they decided to incorporate themselves into a company. They then raised $100,000 from the normative music company, as an investment. This move was not so much an alternative to signing a record deal, more a way of orientating themselves towards their future development.

The partnership between Normative and Francis and the Light reflects a joint understanding of the place of independent music, and a shared regard for music as an art form not open to compromise. The promise of independent music, says Jake Lodwick, the manager of Normative, is that of “unmolested artistic integrity”. This art begins with a vision, a “spark in the musicians mind” and must be “absolutely realized, irrespective of cost“. Such dedication to a pure aesthetic ideal is surely something to be commended on both sides, especially in the age of mechanical reproduction and the homogenizing effects of the culture industry.

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