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Show pi 7m iomf8 audio M i ii i.mm wn ! im nnii w w iit mmm r Wi iniimni mmx!. par tnntlatoi mpZt into houn of latining pUaturt. 3 ,97 TECHNOLOGY BHD MJSIC was disapRdiqhead band's the when pointed long-awaite- d was leaked onto long before its national release date. Yet, without much promotion or any obvious singles, and despite Radiohead's innovative but alienating fragments in lieu of the regular MTV videos, the album soared to No. 1 almost immediately, defying the economics. basics of album music-industr- Kid A nap-ster.co- m incidents and others like them, it's fairly obvious that some artists do lose money through illegal mp3 trading, even though record sales are at an high this year. local But the implications of mp3 technologies are very different from the national ones. The additions of such Web sites as mp3.c0m, farmclub.com and garageband.com compliclaims that mp3s cates big are hurting the industry. all-tim- e record-compan- y y Arista Records did a Valentine's Day promotion of Dido's song "Thank You" through mps com. During the week that "Thank You" was featured on mp3.com' SingleServing email promotion, along with a photograph and biography of the singer, sales of the CD went u p a huge 40 percent Many, including, of course, mp3.c0m, claimed the free promotion had everything to do with the rise in sales. Before any positive examples of file sharing happened, the big record, companies that produce the vast majority of music these days had a reasonable argument when they said artists inevitably suffer when fans download music for free. And even after the Radiohead and Dido Rewind Mp3s are digital audio files shrunken down to enable fast and efficient downloading. They are convenient, available online, and free, for the most part And the software required to download an mp3 is also free and readily available on the Web. Portable mp3 players, like the Rio 500 and the iPAQ Personal Audio Player, are the size of a typical Discman and rarely skip. And most importantly, mp3 are easy to make. That's why so many people allow their favorite songs by other artists to be passed around by napster.com users and upload their own music onto sites like mp3.c0m. "Mp3s are used because of convenience," said Dale Meier, multimedia producer and one-thir- d designer at artatom.com. "It's the easiest way to send, receive and store audio because of its the size of compact h smaller size disk formatted audio." The downside? Web Despite the claims of many sites, the digital audio files are generally of lower quality than regular CD recordings. "For anyone who cares about sound quality at all, mp3s just don't cut it," said Ryan Fedor, guitarist for local band St. Ryan's Lament. "The cymbals and high frequencies tend to sound mp3s, really bad on all but the highest-qualit- y and even then, there is still some loss." , But mp3 technology improves on an almost daily basis as different companies and Web sites try to keep up with the competition. The future of Web music can only get bigger and bigger as more and more technology comes out," Fedor said. "Soon, files win be smaller, and sound quali ty will be even bet- So COL why in the world would professional musicians make their music available for free on the Internet? Actually, there are lots of reasons, the first and foremost being the fact that nothing is really free. Musicians have a lot to gain by putting their music on the Web. 'It has been incredibly difficult to create exposure to our music," said Kevin Smith, singer for local band Wishbone. 'In the past, a band would have to try to book gigs all over the country and in areas of high visibility to abilgain this kind of exposure. Now, with the ity to post our music on the Web, anyone can access the musicfans, club owners, agents, producers, anyone."" Web promotion lias come in handy for many local bands, such as Clover, Sun Masons and Lemongrass, each of which has found success through Web promotions. one-fift- . mp3-base- d ter." it Away, Now. Hundreds of thousands of musicians put their musk on the Web for free. And no one makes any money off those songs at least not direct! v. Give 1 . Getting to Know You Some mp3 sites make a point of connecting musicians with other musicians, creating an invaluable artistic community more intimidating than Gayle Ruzicka's phone tree. ."The artist community at mp3.c0m is great," Johnson said. "You can get feedback from people on your music by swapping downloads and reviewing each other's music. 3 his also allows you to help each other out vrith touring, etc" And beyond Web-sit- e communities, Internet technology provides everything from tc local musical global identity. '"Not only can you iesch people in practically every country in the world with your message, Inform aticn or music, but you can aho solidify the sense of local community," Johnson said. "Web sites that are dedicated to regional concerns are abundant, and every- body with Internet access can keep updated from their own homes. "We haven't realized the potential of this benefit yet, but uichbands.ccm, How to Make Money Selling Free Staff Mpj technology also saves musicians studio money in the long run. "Producing a CD can cost several thousand dollars," said Johnson. "By recording at home with computer software or a cheap device, encoding and uploading your music to a sits like mp3.c0m, you can complete an album for less than $1,000." Also, produang a CD yourself can be risky business. Many hands find themselves with garages fall of outdated CDs they could never sell So ir response to the problem, mp3.c0m Basi- produces inexpensive BAM CDs for fairs. e distj ibution for the cally, that means artist. The company only produces a CD when one is ordered, so the arti&ts don't need to put money on the line. And cai top ofthat, artists get 30 percent of the mon?y from the sals, so they can price CDs as cheaply as $5.9-- and still get more money than they would through a traditional record deal selling the ssma number of CDs. "Basically, it boils c.wn to money. Kw much excitement and exposure can you ere-- . ate and at what cost?" Smith saul "A roar is a lot more expensive- than hosting music on ' . your Web sits." '.-- ' mufti-trackin- g . - risk-fre- , " ' - the rest are picked to fill a particular demographic." the record companies are good for something, and the quality of recordings sometimes goes down when inexperienced musicians try to mix their own music. "The ease and availability of recording equipment and software (as well as a lot of However, marketing hype) has led to a major shift in stuthe music industry from big, high-tecdios with expensive, trained recording engineers to studios," Johnson said. "Unfortunateryjiot every musician is a good sound engineer, and a few minutes of mp3.c0m or garageband.com is all you need to hear to figure that out" h home-proje- ct Idding the Coat Tails After all the nasty words big record labels and their cronies have had for fde sharers (Dr. Dre said Napster was taking food out of his children's mouths ha!), many are decidedly quick to jump on the bandwagon. In fact, nearly every major label has free downloads onits Website. Call them hypocrites, call them but don't call them bad businessmen and businesswomen they're anything but - sell-out- s, -- While such technologies "make it a much mora level playing field for talented musicians who don't have as much support," Meier said, they also "saturate the Web with clones v and untalented musicians " '7':r,-;,;- : more than has alone 750,000 mp5.c0m audio files representing more than k?,ooo " "The Web is most beneficial in allowing the world to have a chance to hear different ideas," Meier said., "but they might have to " wade through the sea of crap to get them And the " b ad guys" cn the Web the copy down the right infrirgcrstand to ;, 77i ionvtuitnc of digits! mutit hat R6 - COVER STORy - RED chagd tho fee ofth InJuuUy wr tls past f) b;-:n- ten. " ment. - , Inthelnd-.- . "The Web is no guarantee to any band," Meier said. "If they don't work very hard to ' promote their music, it doesn't matter if they are on the Web or not. They also need talent." - At the same time, mp3 technologies and Web band promotion has opened doors that were previously inaccessible to small-tim- e artists looking for a break. ' . an album or a few before an from album songs they buy it," Fedor said. "Artists will have to release an album that is solid from top to bottom rather than having just a few singles and a bunch of filler since people will be able to listen to what they buy before they buy it" The Internet is a tool for many artists. And it is inevitably changing the face of the music industry. "1 think that the Internet has given the young and unestablished bands a level of empowerment thai is greater than any generation has ever experienced," Johnson said, "and a level of freedom and medium that they wilt always retain." Let's hope so. "People can preview Muscle The only thing a record company is useful for is reccdmg and marketing. If a musician' can do these things, then the record companies ai e obsolete," Mdei said. "It's about ' '" " ;' time." No wonder record companies often react negatively to improvements in the recording and distribution fields. "Big record companies should be th If they aren't able or willing to change." Meier said. "If smaller recording companies adapt and even showcase this technology, then they will benefit from it. The cornpa ay that offers the best product has the best chance of survival call in the Many people see a wake-umusic industry as' a necessity. "I think re need to scare the bigger companies." Smith said. "They need a slap in the face. It's not about music anymore. Out of 10 new bands, one may have notable talent and Rsxingthad'e reat-cne- d ' v ., . the near future," said Johnson, "independent and local musicians will have a better chance of being heard and recognized, and this should, in theory, refresh the somewhat stagnant progression of modem music." So although the quality of recording sometimes goes down when artists leave record labels in favor of home studios, the quality of the music often improves. And the Internet market will further facilitate this improve"In "Communities like mp3.c0m actually make finding new talent safe for record companies," Johnson said. "They can prove artists online before signing them as was the case with Fisher, for example." And some record companies are embracing mp3 technologies wholeheartedly. In fact, Maverick Records recently signed on with mp3.c0m to help market and promote its recording artists, including Prodigy, the Deftones, Jude and Unloco. Also, at different times, mp3.c0m has fea-- . tured musiri from such artists such as Tori Amos, Alanis Morissette, the Beastie Boys, Billy Idol, Tina Turner, Peter Townshend, George Clinton and many others, indicating that some industry greats can see the prag-- , . matic use of free music. -' On the Other IbiuL.' as Mp3 technologies have their downsides ., OU tsQTUOUN LUujLl-od nninwjii i utakatsamuiiccom do help to keep you cu5'rent and into the Utah music scene," Johnson said. - , skill, and y & 3 well. th good name of the whole industry. "A growing number of people think it's OK to burn a CD of mp3s of someone's album ra ther than purchasing it," said Fedor. "What's, really perplexing about it is that they're stealing money directly from the artist they claim to like. "It always amazes me when I meet someone and they tell me, Yeah, I love insert band name here. That's why I downloaded all their music from Napster and burned it to CD last weekend If these people truly loved this artist or supported them," Fedor said, "they would be buying their music, not stealing it" . - ud L crULL J! p Ptiobia mp! plrytt at eonmmnt, eh to 3jthty tlik end ,0 J SlAMm..., camiy tLlp. RED - MAR08 2001 - R7 |