The end is near

According to Thom Yorke's statement in the yet to be released school text book 'The Rax Active Citizen Toolkit', the music industry will cease to exist. His band Radiohead is of course a perfect example for how things could be in the business: release your music on a DIY label and make lots of money with it.

Imagine how it would be: a world without majors. No EMI, Sony or Universal telling bands what to play or telling people what they should listen to. There would be a shitload of independent labels, and they would always be connected to just a handful of bands. Artist would get to choose what their music should sound like, what budget they will spend on a certain release, etc. 

Just imagine the creativity when it comes to promoting your own music, without having the hassle to be struggling against incredible big opponents such as majors are these days. There would be a war of bands, and I mean that in the best possible way: now they don't only have to make the best music on earth, they also have to come up with bigger and better ideas to get the music to the fans. 

The (DIY) tools already exist in this internet based era. Apart from the most common social media, more and more platforms get to see the light of day. Fanbridge, Pinerly, Soundcloud, Mixcloud and Songkick are just a few of them. 

I think it's a brilliant motivator for a beginning band to know wether they're built for it or not. Do they have what it takes to take everything under their own control? At least, I'd like to believe so. Statements like this make me want to start to manage my own band, Kobalt, and take it to the highest possible level. 

The CD turns 30

Thirty years ago, the CD and the CD player were first introduced to the world. As with every new invention, people didn't really believe in the new product. In comparison with the LP that ruled the music market, the CD was far too expensive and the first releases were almost entirely classical music. IF pop acts would release their newest album on CD, it would only be at least three months after their LP release. 

But the brand new product had a lot to offer too, and that's what eventually persuaded the big mass. The CD came in a nifty plastic design, promised virtually zero maintenance compared to LPs, had a never seen new feature called 'instant track skip' and a longer capacity without needing to flip sides. 

In the mid 80s, the price for a CD and CD players dropped eventually. By then, almost all titles previously released on LP had made the transfer to CD too. Bands and artists all over the world released their new albums instantly on CD and even car manufactures started integrating CD players in their newest models. 

Only true audiophiles kept going on about the mediocre sound quality. Even after a couple of upgrades regarding the listening experience, the CD still couldn't win from the LP when it came to the sound quality. And yes, it's one of the reasons - even today - I too choose vinyl over CDs. 

Nonetheless, happy birthday to you, mister CD!