.oO Tailwind

Two words:
Oh My.

Thanks Shai,

Pandora shuts down for the UK

Originally uploaded by Snowbadger

Booo.

Finally legalese has won out and shut down Pandora for users outside the US.

I loved Pandora, it put me onto new things and I bought new music.

Such innovation is being stifled by bureaucracy. it’s such a downer. So short-sighted. The middle man wasn’t getting his buck.

But now, he can’t get my buck.

JOSH DION BANDOriginally uploaded by yeyo1

Whilst in New York I had the pleasure of one of those serendipitous moments when going out on a Thursday night.We jumped in a cab in Times Square, and whilst being with two American colleagues, we were none the wiser as to where we should go for a decent, non-toursity night out. Even though we were tipped to hit Greenwich Village for a few bars.

We said “take us to the decent bars” and the cabbie, all polite and trusting like, suggested we go down to Bleeker. When we got there we strayed into a bar called ‘The Bitter End‘.

For a $5 cover charge we could grab a stage side table and enjoy one or two beers. There was a band on who were okay (Stratespherous) and then a second that were really very good (Fools for April) an the third (The Josh Dion Band Official site MySpace site) were really really awesome.

This very energetic American, rocky, soulful, bluesy live group made my trip.We were on our way out after Fools for April as we wanted to see more of Bleeker, but when I saw the next band carrying in a Fender Rhodes. If you don’t know what one is (!) remember the opening to the TV show Taxi?.Anyway, I’m a fan of any band that has one. Then I noticed their bassist had a very similar bass guitar to me and I was staying. He was gooooood btw.

They set-up in an interesting way, with a drums at the front and as soon as they started energy and soul were the name of the day. They belted out what appears to be a set that’s done the rounds as you can buy a live album with something very similar to what I heard.No matter. they had the now full crowd of The Bitter End head-nodding, foot-tapping and jumping.

As it turns out, The Bitter End has somewhat of a pedigree when it comes to live music. Apparently a recognised hang-out for record industry types and new emerging bands, people to have played there include Stevie Wonder, Gil Scott-Heron, Curtis Mayfiled, Joan Baez, Jonie Mitchell and a few other names you may have heard of.It made me think that you couldn’t do this in London.

London is a place that requires not only inside knowledge, but clear planning. you couldn’t walk into a place like this, off the street and only pay $5 and see such quality bands.The Josh Dion Band are well worth checking out as they now have a residency, every Thursday at The Bitter End. I think they start at 9pm.

When I head back to NYC I’m making sure I’m there to see them. I only hope they come to London at some point.Thanks for making my trip guys.Anyone in New York on a Thursday - go check them out. Seriously. Go check them out.New York 1, London 0.

Like Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, then have a play with this game. Be warned! you might be some time

Continuing a space theme, here is an R2D2 translator. You can download the output.

In 1959 a man went up in a balloon to the edge of space to jump out. He was ata height of 40km (!!!!). Completely mental. Why isn’t this an extreme sport?

Struggling to sleep? Try a bedtime tune to relax yourself.

Ever wondered what the system is for completing a Rubiks cube?

More drums. The most amazing drum solo ever?

Ever lost a manual for a product you own? Well, fret not, here’s a BIG library of user manuals.

Molecular Nanobots? In your bloodstream? What? Im actually sacred.

Back in March I bought a pair of Shure e2c heaphones.

I was quite impressed. It took me a while to work out which ’sleeves’ to use but once I did, nice.

Then the legendary build quality failed me. The left headphone started to develop a loose connection so I could only hear music if I wiggled the wire, tilted my head and stretched my neck.

This is no way to behave on a packed commuter train.

So, as they had a 2 year warranty I contacted Shure and returned them. The then promptly sent me a shiny new set of SE110s which have replaced the e2c.

Two things; first these are fantastic headphone for the price (about £65) and secondly this was superb customer service.

The Headphones:
They take all the good bits of the e2c and work them into a better package. the sleeves are way more comfortable, produce a better seal (they are noise ‘isolating’ you see, not noise ‘cancelling’) and they are in a lighter unit. Even with MP3 encoded tracks on my iPod I hear brighter, wider sound, an elevated stage and clarity on the instruments.

If you are using the standard buds, CHANGE THEM!

At home I sport some Sennheiser HD25s (turntable usage) but I want something pocket size for the commute.

The Customer Service:
I once returned a set of Oakley Eye jackets after 3 or so years ownership only to have the cracked frame swiftly replaced. this was back in 1997ish.

I’ve bought Oakley eye-wear ever since, be it sunnies or snow boarding goggles.

Of course they are amazing lenses, but the fact that they stuck to their promise and respected the lifetime guarantee I’m an Oakley customer for life.

Shure have now instilled me with the same loyalty for a set of entry-level £65 headphones. So long as they produce quality products I’ll keep buying because I know if things go wrong there is integrity behind the brand.

Thanks Oakley. Thanks Shure.

Rock legends, The Who are the latest artist to jump on the new music model bandwagon asking fans to exchange for $50 of their hard earned cashola in exchange for access to streaming video, music, messages etc.

I’m sure that there is more to it than this as I’m sure any die-hard Who fan already has much of the back catalogue and wil therefore be sniffing around for unseen exclusives. I’d expect there to be a range of previously unreleased, cutting room floor type content available.

Also, Starbucks’ record label Hear Music have signed their first new artist and will be selling the wares of Hilary McRae alongide crooners such as Paul McCartney, Joni Mitchel and James Taylor. For me, this line-up is starting to say omething about their coffee and I wonder jut how much affect, long-term, this is going to ave of coffee punters.

Imagine they were signing a load of heavy metal artists, surely if you knew that you’d be going elsewhere for your caffeine fix?

Incidentlly, I’m off the coffee for the whole of November. It’s amazing how just after 1 day of cuttig out the black stuff, I started feeling really sluggish and had mild headaches.

Though I didn’t stop purely because I can’t stan te sight of Macca McCartney’s face beaming up at me from the counter in Starbucks.

Now a music magazine has adopted the Radiohead ‘Pay what you want’ model. Based in Ohio, Paste Magazine is a music rag trying to take digital idea into the print space.

No time to comment, as ever, but here is the news.

Thanks to Coolfer.

C’est trés interessant non?

Powered by ScribeFire.

A lot has been written about the Radiohead free album thing over the past week or so. If you missed it here’s a précis for you.

Having split from their record label Radiohead decided that they wanted to get their latest album ‘In Rainbows’ to fans as quickly as possible in a kind of cut-the-crap sort of way.

To do this they started placing small icons all over their website to stir interest. Then they announced ‘coming soon’ then they announce ‘October 10th’. this was all prior to announcing that the album ‘In Rainbows’ will only be available on the website for fans to ‘pay as little or as much a they like for the album’. Which effectively means, bar the 45p credit card fee, Radiohead fans and non-fans for that matter ca obtain their new album for free.

Aside from the download, for £40 you can buy a special box set of 2 x vinyl, 2 x CDs and other Radiohead merchandise including a hardback book, photos and more that will be delivered at a later date.

It is reported that in a single day, Radiohead may have made as much as $10 million and that some fans may have paid the maximum value that the system was set-up to process; £99 (or about $200).

£99 for a Radiohead album? Not on my watch, but then I’m hardly a fan.

When I first heard about this move, which Oasis, The Charlatans and Jamiroquai have been quick to follow (in words and promises at least), I wondered about the value exchange between band and fan, between band and semi-fan and between band and non-fan.

It stands to reason that people will pay a reasonable amount for a band they have enjoyed for a few years but what was thought about the masses that would undoubtedly pay the minimum? It’s clearly a good way of reaching a fringe audience as the risk to the purchaser, in terms of not liking the album is reduced.

I may even consider buying it myself, but I’m distinctly a non-fan for no other reason than the fact that I hate music designed to meet your melancholy requirements. No-one needs suicide songs in their life IMO. Happy, bouncy, funky get-down on the get-down for me. Brass, bass and a side-serving of thang if you please.

Anyway, back to the album and some figures discussed on our internal mailing list at LBi:

Apparently they had 1.2 million downloads in 2 days at an average of £5 giving £6 million ($12 million).

Apparently (again), in order to make a comparable amount to a conventional contract with a record company they would need to shift 1/2 million copies at 75p each.
Good business. Easy-peasey.

Now as I’ve said, I’m not a fan of Radiohead but you simply have to admire this level of disruption. Record companies have had it coming for years charging us up to £15 ($30) for a CD and only passing £1-2 through to the artist. No-one will be crying for them, it’s time for some serious reinvention or as Tom Peters would say ‘ Time to re-imagine’.

Record companies used to add value by enabling artists to actually make records then use their marketing clout to get the track airtime, exposure and rack-space. Of course this is no cheap endeavour and anyone who thinks music should be free is failing to see the costs of getting produced and getting out there. Yes, you have your Arctic Monkeys, Libertines and Lily Allen stories but in general the whole product life-cycle of a music creation and distribution is a costly old thing.

Record companies have missed the opprotunities that digital, multi-channel delivery offers them. they’ve stuck their head in the sand demonstrating classic long-tail behaviour and are now quaking in their boots.

So with that said, CD sales plummeting and downloads rising from 0 in 2003 to in excess of 26 million in 2005 it’s time to allow fans and bands to make sweet beautiful music together. To cut out the middle men.

Or is it?

There’s a consumer life-cycle associated with music. In four phases you generally:

1. Discover new music
2. Manage it
3. Use/experience it
4. Share it (though not always)

In order to discover it you need to be introduced to it, you need mechanisms of discovery, you need something to inspire that ‘harvester’ in you to go collect. You need ways in which to store and manage it, you need ways to ‘use/experience’ it. Which is key as there are more live performances now than ever. And now that they’ve stopped selling the traditional C90 cassette, you need ways to share your music.

Unless of course it’s a ‘guilty pleasure’ and you don’t want anyone to know you still listen to it.

There are more bands than ever and you needs ways to accurately cut through the crap.

So could all bands start giving music away for free? Well, of course Radiohead are afforded the capacity to try this experiment having been benefactors of the old model (please don’t argue that they’ve been screwed by the record companies for years - that’s another discussion entirely), but it’s still a bloody good experiment.

I think this is an interesting way to reach a wider fan-base. Ask fans to pay what they want and you’ll probably see a similar affect to those ‘honesty boxes’ you get in WH Smiths (UK newsagents) where you drop your change into the box. While some people cheat the system, invariably it works out okay fr the retailer.

See people are decent folk. Well, some.

This type of ‘honesty box’ culture is fairly widespread and numerous bands have tried this before. See these guys of The Mooncake Project who ask for donations for their wares. Software too has long been in ‘donation-ware’ mode.

So, some questions:

• Does this approach create a tier system for bands and their relationship with fans? Cheapskate fans and top-dollar fans?
• Does this mean that Radiohead can now segment their audience and offer value adds to the higher paying public?
• Would fans consider subscribing to an artists for £30 a year and funding their work in a more committed way?
• How much could Radiohead expect to make overall? And what percentage will download for free?
• Would there be secret pay-bands where real fans (people who pay decent mounts for the album) get some ‘extras’, maybe some extra tracks, some studio snippets, some images, video, advance tickets etc etc

Variations on the theme are popping up all over the place, Jamiroquai and Oasis have suggested they’ll follow suit, Jamiroquai having recently ended their 8 album deal with Sony. In the same week indie legends The Charlatans went one better than Radiohead and made their new single You Cross My Path, available from radio station Xfm’s website at no charge.

The diminutive purple pop-star, the-artist-who-I-will-call-Prince, also made waves when he released his new album for free with the Mail on Sunday. Okay, so you had yo actually be seen buying a Mail on Sunday but essentially free if not socially-suicidal. You could argue that this was to promote his 21 night event at the O2 Arena in London, which was of course the real money spinner.

Then of course there is Madonna, who’s signed a 10 year £60 million deal with Live Nation the concert ticket search people. The deal sees Madge gain cash and shares in exchange for excluive rights to merchandising. Apparently Live Nation have struck 360 similar deals with the Madonna one obviously being the largest.

T-shirt of a 60-year-old Madonna anyone..?

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