Where to Start with my Other Music Blog

I set up this Ethnomusicology blog to post items relevant to the course ANTH398D Selected Topics in Anthropology: Ethnomusicology. Thought these blogging activities might complement what we do in class and through Moodle. I tend to think a lot about music while I'm browsing and blogging tends to influence my teaching, so the connection was obvious.

But there's another music-related blog to which I contribute: blog.criticalworld.net. This other blog is associated with CriticalWorld, a site dedicated to Thinking Globalisation Through Music. (Though that blog is part of CriticalWorld.net and though I have been involved with CriticalWorld for a while, my blogging activities there are completely autonomous.)

Through that other music blog, I tend to think a lot about financial issues relating to music in the context of "Digital Life." These issues have been mentioned in class so I thought I'd give something of a rundown of several of my very own blog entries about these issues. This is not meant as a shameless plug, a "vanity post" or an anthology. My hope is that looking at these entries, you might understand my approach a bit more.

For instance, I've been having fun with "business models" relating to music in a broad context:

• New Models for Music as Business
• New Models for Music as Business: Attali Got It!
• New Models for Music as Business: Brazilian Tecno Brega
• Fun with Music Business Scenarios
• New Models for Music As Business: Majors Edition
• New Models for Music as Business: NIN Edition

As is probably obvious to anyone, one of the main targets for reflections about music-related businesses is the so-called "Recording Industry":

• RIAA’s Landslide Victory
• Thinking Back on the Record Industry

Digital Rights Management (copy-protection on commodities related to copyrighted items) is a frequently mentioned issue:

• Majors, Indies, and DRM
• DRM-Freedom and Artist Recognition
• Effects of EMI’s DRM-free Downloads on Apple’s iTunes
• The Premium for DRM-freedom

As I mentioned in class, there are things to say about ringtones:

• Reactions to Ringtone
• Cost of Ringtones (Rant)

Some of my posts tend to be playful:

• Music and Coffee: “Fair-Trade” and The Global Order (Draft)
• The Day The Music Undied?
• Zune Debacle: The Silliness Which Goes On Going On

And, overall, I've set up broad categories to classify posts on that blog:

• Fresh for Direct reactions to news pieces and current events
• Soapbox for Rants, monologues, tirades, personal reactions, advocacy
• Sandbox for Playful, fun, distracting, collaborative items
• Ongoing for Open discussions of items relevant to CriticalWorld
• CriticalWorld for Events, activities, internal links to the CriticalWorld site and contributors

Of course, I'd appreciate your comments on any of these items and my hope is that some of them can generate discussion.

Blogging Ethnomusicologists

The author of the World Music textbook that I put on reserve has a blog with notes and YouTube links
Bakan WORLD MUSIC blog
He recently posted links to YouTube videos of Balinese music, including gamelan playing. It'd be interesting to discuss some of these excerpts in class, as we spend some time to talk about ethnomusicology as a discipline.

Acoustic Analysis of Music

Musical Acoustics/Physics of Music
Seeing the Sound
Praat Tutorial for Musicologists
Acoustics and Sound Technology

French Rap: A Podcast

Probably the first English-speaking show about French Rap and Hip Hop.
Yo La La ! The French Rap Hip Hop podcast mp3 online radio show.
Though the podcast's host (and programmer) has obvious preferences for specific styles and genres within French Rap and Hip Hop scenes, the program showcases an interesting musical diversity.

Future of Music (Coalition and Interview)

A podcast interview with a number of insightful comments about current changes in what people do with music.

Well-Rounded Radio: Episode 041: Jenny Toomey of The Future of Music Coalition

Among the issues that the coalition has focused on are music licensing, payola, low-power radio, health insurance for musicians, network neutrality, record label contracts, Internet radio licensing, and many other topics that are key to the current and future era of music-making for both independent and rising musicians.

Presentation (Week 1)

Course Outline

Here is the long version of the course outline (syllabus), in PDF format.
ANTH398D/2A

Music and Narrative

Lots to discuss, here.

Paul Potts Biography

Sound of Her Voice

Time of day calling it quits at AT&T - Los Angeles Times
Among interesting passages:

'I think that's very sad,' Daniels said. 'I was told at one time that my voice would last until well into the 21st century. Now it looks like I'm about to be laid to rest.'

Surely, there's a music-related project to be done on the sounds of those voices. Isn't this the "mashup" era?

Music's Industrries: Ringtones in 2007

Some recent news about ringtones, with Apple getting into the fray.

Worldwide ringtones sales totaled $3.5 billion last year, according to London's ARC Group, a research firm that tracks the telecom industry. APPLE, LABELS PITCH 'TONES | By BRIAN GARRITY | Business News | Financial | Business and Money

If this is true and sales of audio recordings didn't jump up from last year, this would mean that sales of ringtones are equivalent to more than 10% of the sales of recordings. Not that it's necessarily good for artists but in terms of simple accounting, it shows that there is more to doing business with music than "pushing CDs on consumers."

Defining Innovation?

Is this a summary of what journalists think about when they search for musical diversity?
Pop looks to the past for a forward-feeling sound - CRITICS NOTEBOOK - Los Angeles Times - calendarlive.com

Freely Streaming Music

Deezer and similar services could become interesting. It's a bit like other music streaming services but it allows anyone (from anywhere) to stream any music in the Deezer catalogue and blog/share it at will. Of course, there have been other services like this but none of them seemed to offer this level of freedom. As it's a French site, it has a number of tracks from France and other Francophone regions, including this track from Guinean musician Ba Cissoko.

Early Music Instruction

Charlie Keil over at Born to Groove has created a community of people who are interested in music and dance in early life. Children grooving together.
The following video was posted on a short thread about children music prodigies.

Embedded Video

Blogged with Flock

Music, Gender, and Religion

Noticed by a friend on Facebook.
God Hates Fags! Love Gods Way!
A list of bands and artists who are recognised as homosexuals. By Donnie Davies.
Is Donnie Davies a hoax?

X-Genre Prowess: DJ+Violin/Fiddle

A violin player who can swing and a DJ who really listens.

Queb Trad

Matapat is a cool band. Hung out and did an interview with them in Bloomington, IN, back in 2000. This video is probably a good summary of what the band has been doing. And it says a lot about Quebec culture.

Embedded Video

Blogged with Flock

Insight on Record Industry (spoofs)

Two blog entries about the record industry written by "Fake Steve Jobs":
The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs: Rolling Stone: The record industry is dying
The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs: The music industry nobs have finally figured out what we're doing
Much to mull over, in both of these. Nothing really new, but well put and insightful. Many comments on those entries are interesting. I found myself agreeing with many points made by commentators even in the case of comments which seem to contradict one another.
One thing is for sure, the record industry cannot remain unchanged, at this point. All things considered, the record industry is a rather young one. But it's already moribund.
It will in fact be fun to see what will take the place of the record industry in the broader field of music-related businesses. Apple Inc. might play an important but so may relatively unknown entities.

Planning Playlists

This link was included in a discussion of course playlists and copyright on the Society for Ethnomusicology's mailing-list.
Smithsonian Global Sound
It could provide a convenient source for playlists in anthropology of music and ethnomusicology courses.

Chicago-Mtl Connection

This could be fun. A Chicago ethnomusicologist is coming to Montreal next month for Baile MTL.
wayneandwax.com � Montreal Masala

Be Heard!

The Canada Council for the Arts is soliciting feedback on its strategic plan. We've talked about the Canada Council on several occasions, including during Alexandre Burton's presentation.
As many of you have a vested interest in the Canada Council's functioning, I encourage you to make your voice heard. They do seem to welcome broad feedback, even though the main consultation process seems to be through an online survey.
Strategic plan consultation - Canada Council for the Arts