please bear with us as we get everything migrated and cleaned up ready to relaunch……apologies for the delays and the non-information…..any questions or data requests hit me on picofive@gmail.com!
waity waity
Author Archive for pico five
17
Jun
09
stones throw podcast 46
oh this is saucy….get down on it
The resurgent vinyl market isn’t showing any signs of slowing down. In fact, recent figures released by Nielsen SoundScan indicate that overall U.S. vinyl sales will once again set a benchmark in 2009, with sales up 50% through the first five months of the year.
SoundScan predicts vinyl sales will reach 2.8 million units in 2009, up from 1.9 million in 2008, a record since SoundScan began tracking sales data in 1991. Already in 2009, vinyl sales have topped 1 million. At this point last year, vinyl sales stood at 701,000 copies. To be fair, the number is still tiny compared to overall album sales.
Vinyl, SoundScan points out, accounts for less than 1% of overall album sales. In other words, vinyl sales represent about six months in the life of Taylor Swift, whose late 2008 release, “Fearless,” has already sold more than 3.3 million copies. To date in 2009, 121.8 million CDs have been sold, versus 33.2 million digital albums, compared to 151.01 million CDs and 27.52 digital albums for the same period last year.
Yet vinyl appears to be a niche market that’s here to stay, and one that’s showing signs of expansion. Rock albums account for 70% of all vinyl sold, but country vinyl is enjoying a growth spurt. Year-to-date country vinyl sales are already at 15,000 copies, compared with 5,000 for the comparable period in 2008.
Of course, if someone wants to rain on the vinyl good news, there’s this stat: Vinyl sales were up 90% in 2008 over 2007, and the rate of growth has certainly slowed.
Defining the Music Industry Crisis
Author: chris purifoy
April 21, 2009
“To every problem there is already a solution whether you know it or not.”
-Grenville Kleiser (1868-1953)
With this in mind, I would like to attempt to identify the main problems that have threatened to destroy the vision that was born on the streets of Tin Pan Alley. I urge readers to add to the list and help me begin this journey towards resolution.
11 of the issues that make up the current Music Industry Crisis.
1. Internet radio is the future yet providers can not sustain growth due to growing taxes on streaming music and a lack of clear revenue models.
2. 360 deals strain everything and everyone causing countless problems yet they are a necessary evil for struggling funding partners (Labels, publishers, Management, etc. . ).
3. Social networks and other web 2.0 outlets provide easy and personal access to fans yet the growing number of networks dilutes the overall message and dramatically increases the time spent marketing.
4. Apple has been an incredible innovator in the quest to a brighter music industry. We owe them a great debt. However, their unprecedented high market share in digital music sales mixed with their stubborn and controlling business models leave no bargaining room for funding partners (labels, publishers, etc..). Growth and innovation in this important industry sector (music retail) is therefore stifled without the ability for competitive trials. In addition, Apple’s 30% take on each track sold leaves little for the artists and song writers.
5. Physical Retail stores have lost the ability to turn a profit unless attached to a one stop business model (i.e Walmart, Hastings, Best Buy, etc.). As a result the true music pushers, independent music retail stores, are almost extinct.
6. Traditional radio, though still an important promotional front, has lost much of its glory to the on demand world of iPods, satellite radio, and Internet radio. It has therefore become increasingly more difficult to predict market trends without a standard radio format to follow. The result is a much higher risk/return ratio for funding partners (Labels, Publishers, etc..), which in turn limits the number of acts that ever see a major market entry.
7. The RIAA in an attempt to combat the growing number of music pirates, proclaimed war on piracy by means of civil suits with individual copyright infringers. Many average American citizens were made an example of with outrageous and bizarre settlements. The music industries’ minds were in the right place. They had intended to create the perception of risk for stealing music and in turn, change consumer thinking. In the end however, it only generated a false image of a “Greedy Recording Industry”. This wall between the consumer and the industry has instead furthered the cause for this viral pirating trend.
8. Video and audio sharing networks act as a breeding ground for the spread of illegal music in the form of audio and videos. These new networks cut into the profits of funding partners (labels, publishers, etc.) yet act as a wonderful way for independent artists and major artists alike to receive viral promotion. In addition, simple mathematics states that all of the illegal media sharing portals can not be shut down. Lawsuits cost money, and the recording industry doesn’t have much. Instead, the industry goes after the major outlets one at a time. But for every 1 that is shut down, 7 more are built in its place. Let us just say that this fire is out of control.
9. And let us not forget, stealing music is still more convenient to the average consumer than buying music. In addition, the only way to fully shut down music piracy would be to turn on “Big Brother” and violate very important privacy privileges. Therefore, it can never truly be stopped as long as we live in a democratic society. The solution must lie in connotation and change. Though it may appear that the RIAA is doing more harm then good, they have it right. The battle ground is in the mind.
10. (Addition) The music industries, both production and business, are now intimately and infinitely tied to digital and to the Internet. The systems that govern digital music across the web are not yet fully realized by the core of the music Industry. A clear vision for the future of these newlyweds (music and Internet), has not yet been defined. The marriage is still rocky and working out its kinks. The solution can be found in the collective mind of the industry. To quote our motto, “We must unite to restore.”
11. (Addition & Invitation) The Live Scene
The first round of comments from the Linkedin music business network laid claims to a crisis within the live music scene. The live scene has been neglected by this article. I invite anyone who works in live sound to help me analyse this market niche for problems. Your collective wisdom will greatly aid me in future editions of this article as I seek to once and for all define the music industry crisis.
02
Jun
09
brand new opensouls video…….
‘Hold You Close’ is the first video from Opensouls new album ‘Standing In The Rain’, due out August 17th. Directed by Jacob Thomas at Fish N Clips
more data can be gleaned from the following sites…..p.s. keep an eye on point3recurring for some illegal bootlegs & some other gems biffed out and dug up from this crew of late….
30
May
09
Prince Zimboo: Diplo’s Major Lazer Collaborator, Husband to 999 Wives, And Hip-hop’s African Borat?
So who is he? In all likelihood, Prince Zimboo is the alter ego of Jamaican dance-hall producer Asanney “Asani” Morris. An embedded video on Zimboo’s MySpace page reveals this in passing, although the video was made by documentarians visiting Jamaica who might have gotten it wrong—in interviews and raps, Zimboo refers to Asani as his friend. (In a twist that adds to the artsy intrigue, one of Zimboo’s champions is the Jamaican photographer Peter Dean Rickards, who published pictures that purported to unmask definitively the elusive British street artist Banksy).
Assuming Morris is the man behind the dashiki, it’s hard to say precisely what he’s up to. But maybe Prince Zimboo is something like the African Borat, a character who exemplifies and satirizes stereotypes of Otherness for laughs. From his purposely vague biography (one moment he says he lives in a cave; the next, a palace) to his raps about zebras to his Twitter posts about luxurious camel hides, Zimboo offers a milewide caricature of primitivism. And like Borat, with his “sexy time!” and “jagshemash!,” Prince Zimboo has an arsenal of catchphrases that are a delight to imitate: His mantra (“I am looking for wife 1,000”), his courtship advice (“Man have to know how to dress!”), and his truncated cackle (“Heh”) could all make for hit T-shirt slogans, given the right marketing strategy. Of course, Sacha Baron Cohen’s agenda is more pointed. Borat needs rubes whose ignorance he exposes and exploits; with Prince Zimboo, the ruse is much gentler.
What Tami Says: Prince Zimboo is No African Borat
Prince Zimboo fails, in my estimation, because stereotypes about Africa and African people are so pervasive that I reckon too few people will spot the humor. African men live in the jungle surrounded by exotic flora and fauna, wear dashikis, are hyper-sexual and have hundreds of wives? This is different from the popular understanding of the African continent how? Zimboo need only tote an AK-47 and rap about starvation to complete the picture.
Jonah Weiner likens Zimboo to Borat. I disagree that these characters occupy the same space in pop culture. The African stereotype and people’s perceptions of the Central Asian country of Kazhakstan are unequal and not comparable.
Check Zimboo’s Myspace mess here: http://www.myspace.com/zimboomusic
Video mess by the Rickards Bros. : http://www.afflictedyard.com
Trailer from the forthcoming Mochilla/Sonido del Valle production. Shot in Cali and Buenaventura in Colombia. Based around the music of Quantic and his Combo Barbaro from their forthcoming Tradition in Transition album on Tru Thoughts Records featuring the talents of Will Quantic, Alfredito Linares, Nidia Gongora, Freddy Colorado, Arthur Verocai, Joao Comanche Gomes and Malcolm Catto.
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hit them at their myspace page ————> touch me
21
Apr
09
I Met the Walrus
In 1969, a 14-year-old Beatle fanatic named Jerry Levitan snuck into John Lennon’s hotel room in Toronto and convinced him to do an interview. 38 years later, Levitan, director Josh Raskin and illustrator James Braithwaite have collaborated to create an animated short film using the original interview recording as the soundtrack. A spellbinding vessel for Lennon’s boundless wit and timeless message, I Met the Walrus was nominated for the 2008 Academy Award for Animated Short.
Their debut 1971 self titled album is killer. 70s collaborative soul/funk with more bite than Rufus, maybe Cymande-ish. The first song off the record has Fela-esque horns, and hectic poly-rhythmic percussion…this record is a killer and needs to be purchased….and then fondled.
If you like this sound, do your part (not your hair) and hit the band’s website (right here click me) and buy the record!
This is Karriem Riggins on Madlib’s fucked up drum set at the Loop Digga’s Hideaway. New album from Madlib & Karriem under the name Jahari Masamba Unit coming in 2009
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here is a small but relevant part from an older interview —-> LINK
How long have you been emceeing and were you at any point intimidated by it?
Karriem Riggins: I do so much it’s kind of hard to stay on one thing because I’m always doing everything. Common would be working on his album and I would come up with a chant or something, recently I started writing to whatever beat that inspires me and I got a lot of rhymes man (laughs). I met up with Madlib and he gave me 7 beat cd’s with 50 beats on each. So we decided to do that album together and we have five albums in the can. We have five jazz albums and we’re trying to finish the Supreme Team album. Madlib and I actually have a jazz group call the Jahari Masamba Unit and it’s coming out on Stones Throw.
point3recurring 
speaketh