it's not really, tho. i mean, yes, it has a lot of albums -- a lot of albums. but there's so much, and so little guidance helping to separate the wheat from the chaff, that it's like being dropped into a huge warehouse with no map and no assistance. don't get me wrong, i like bandcamp. but i find it's usefulness limited, unless i know exactly what i'm looking for.
Since I was writing about the formative stage, I think I'm still right. Amie Street almost never promoted unsigned acts, mostly product it received from the major indies. eMusic might promote such an act through eMusic selects, but that occurred on a monthly basis at best. For acts that haven't had the benefit of a deal (or one with a small, local label), putting out their first singles and albums, eMusic is almost no different from Bandcamp. What differentiates Bandcamp is that there is a much larger, more active network surrounding it of blogs and forums that actively use it to promote and disseminate music. Compare searches for blogs with the terms "indie" and "bandcamp" versus those with "indie" and "emusic". The former provides a decent list of descriptions and reviews of albums that users of have of albums they've listened to and downloaded, often with the little streaming widget embedded in the post. The latter is mostly descriptions of emusic. More popular participation surrounds Bandcamp. (I won't get into the current unreliability of eMusic's site.)
ETA: I'll grant that it is easier to browse genres on eMusic. However, we've all download an inordinate amount of "Reggae" over the years.
spotify is too target-oriented, so it's harder to drop in at random. But they have changed the page loading somehow so that method does not work any more. Still, I can still jump in increments along the page numbers.
spotify's problem (well, one of them) is that it herds the audience toward pop music or "buzz bands." unlike being dropped into a warehouse with healthy supplies of great and bad music, spotify is like being dropped into an uber wal-mart. there's a million titles in stock, but "hey, look over here at our special usher display!"
eMusic is almost no different from Bandcamp. What differentiates Bandcamp is that there is a much larger, more active network surrounding it of blogs and forums that actively use it to promote and disseminate music.
wait, where is this network of blogs and forums focusing on items released on the bandcamp service? i was going to say that what distinguishes emusic is the amazing editorial content, but honestly i haven't seen any of these bandcamp-centric blogs or forums.
but honestly i haven't seen any of these bandcamp-centric blogs or forums.
A starter. One addition to the Walmart analogy: that there is not really any way to get to the more obscure products unless you can tell the person guarding the promotional display the exact title of what you want to go further into the store to look for.
I'm a reasonably rational, well-educated person. Why is it so hard to shake the feeling that if I buy a 60 minute album for $5.99 that has one long track I am getting a worse deal than if I buy a 60 minute album for $5.99 that has 10 tracks? I understand what's going on here. But understanding does not shift the feeling. Sigh.
I think there's more to the long track thing than just emu conditioning; those 1 track albums are a bigger risk; they tend to be experimental, and therefore unpredictable, even with the same artist sometimes, and the thirty second sample samples are worthless, and all your eggs are in one basket with a one track album. I also think there's an intrinsic value issue; while realizing that there is a vast amount of difference in the ability of different artists to make successful hour-long drones, I think it's still somewhat easier to find a groove and go for an hour than to write 10 different things that work together.
This is from Thom Carter prolific musician in the UK who music is on Bandcamp. The quality of his music is very good and this is a good example of his instrumental music. He also goes under the moniker of March Rosetta, Cave Lions and Menhirs of Er Grah
Hoping the link works if it does at least something has gone right today!
A starter. One addition to the Walmart analogy: that there is not really any way to get to the more obscure products unless you can tell the person guarding the promotional display the exact title of what you want to go further into the store to look for.
ah! is musicisgood a blog focused on under-publicized bandcamp items? i've read the blog, but hadn't put two-and-two together, apparently. a "bandcamp-centric blog" would be a pretty cool idea, btw.
ah! is musicisgood a blog focused on under-publicized bandcamp items?
No, I was working from BT's original comment:
more active network surrounding it of blogs and forums that actively use it to promote and disseminate music
it was you who escalated that to "bandcamp-centric". I know I cited you, but it was not that escalation that I had in mind, just the proliferation of blogs using bandcamp streaming.
I also think there's an intrinsic value issue; while realizing that there is a vast amount of difference in the ability of different artists to make successful hour-long drones, I think it's still somewhat easier to find a groove and go for an hour than to write 10 different things that work together.
That's probably true in some sense (i.e. I am not about to deny that making your guitar buzz for an hour and releasing the results can be a remarkable effort-free and sometimes talent-free method of composition), though perhaps not in an absolute sense: I am sure there are artists for whom it would be in their case a good deal easier to make 10 decent songs than to make a successful 1 hour drone (and there are actually not that many of the latter if you hold them to a genuinely high standard). However, tying that to intrinsic value assumes that "easier" results in less value. That seems wrong - what does that do for comparing, say, the kind of composer (Mozart?) who seems to have a gift for spouting beautiful music at will and the composer who has to work laboriously over long stretches to achieve results of similar quality? The same happens in other fields: if the tales are to be believed, Pushkin used to jot down sonnets on napkins at parties, and became Russia's greatest poet doing so. Other poets whose output is widely judged as having less value had to work harder. I was thinking about this just last night, about my own tendency (in keeping with your comment) to regard prolificness above a certain level as a likely sign of lower quality, which is true in some cases but not others. Aidan Baker (the case I had in mind) turns out a huge amount of stuff; at least some if it is quite brilliant. Some other folk labor over a single release that remains unimpressive. I guess you could still say that making 10 impressive things is better than making one...
ETA: And that reminded me again of this article; the existence of 10 songs is not necessarily any evidence of sustained artistic effort.
Hmmm, that's a good point. I guess I was thinking though more of ease for a particular artist, rather than ease between artists. Where I was coming from was listening to a live recorded jazz release, and at a certain logical point in a track, the volume just faded down. So those guys could have played longer on that track, and they did play longer on that track, but a choice was made to cut the track off at a certain point. I think it would have been easier for them to make a 3 track album with longer jams, than to write or interpret more songs for a six or 7 track album. Maybe the same thing doesn't apply to drone, but drone does seem largely more improvised than composed. I wonder how it would apply to composition? Is it easier for Mozart to stretch out a movement, or to write a new movement, or are they both the same. It's also something I always wonder about drones: how long does a drone have to drone to be a successful drone? Sometimes it seems like modern track lengths are determined more by the recording medium than the song itself. To use the comparison of Indian music, which a lot of drone is tied to, some ragas are relatively short, while others can be very long.
I think drones go both ways. There are recordings that are totally improvised (often guitar-based) and probably of arbitrary length and recorded in one take. There are others that are a good deal more composed, with discernible movements, lots of sound layering and processing, gradual shifts, addition of field recordings, even a sense of narrative. Arguably in some cases it might be harder to make a genuinely successful hour long piece of music doing this than to find 10 interesting sounds by experimenting with settings and let them run for 3 minutes each.
I love Bjork. Is there a big-name pop musician that even comes close to making music as experimental and thorny as she does? Radiohead a little bit, sometimes, maybe, but not nearly so consistently or (relatively) extreme. I consider her among the most creative musicians I'm familiar with.
Comments
- Most likely the best 25. Anniversary gift I ever received . . .
this is how i did this post:
(url=http://garethdickson.bandcamp.com/album/the-dance)(img)http://f0.bcbits.com/z/22/30/2230477780-1.jpg(/img)(/url)
- with [] instead of ()
Bandcamp streaming:
ETA: I'll grant that it is easier to browse genres on eMusic. However, we've all download an inordinate amount of "Reggae" over the years.
spotify's problem (well, one of them) is that it herds the audience toward pop music or "buzz bands." unlike being dropped into a warehouse with healthy supplies of great and bad music, spotify is like being dropped into an uber wal-mart. there's a million titles in stock, but "hey, look over here at our special usher display!"
wait, where is this network of blogs and forums focusing on items released on the bandcamp service? i was going to say that what distinguishes emusic is the amazing editorial content, but honestly i haven't seen any of these bandcamp-centric blogs or forums.
NP:
Off to hear Tortoise live tonight in Grand Rapids.
- Your brain is encoded with the eMu pay per track "thing" - It takes some time to overwrite it, if it's ever gonna happen ;-)
- Not to rub it in, I'm now listening to 4 loooooooooooong tracks purchased for a little less than 1 euro:
(url=>amz)
I've set up playlists to rotate in albums I was listening to a couple years ago...new/old discoveries.
and
Preparing the psyche to write an MiG article on Mark Heard. What an incredible talent!
The above album was 2 credits back in the day - $11.98 now.
I still like Bjork.
I think there's more to the long track thing than just emu conditioning; those 1 track albums are a bigger risk; they tend to be experimental, and therefore unpredictable, even with the same artist sometimes, and the thirty second sample samples are worthless, and all your eggs are in one basket with a one track album. I also think there's an intrinsic value issue; while realizing that there is a vast amount of difference in the ability of different artists to make successful hour-long drones, I think it's still somewhat easier to find a groove and go for an hour than to write 10 different things that work together.
This is from Thom Carter prolific musician in the UK who music is on Bandcamp. The quality of his music is very good and this is a good example of his instrumental music. He also goes under the moniker of March Rosetta, Cave Lions and Menhirs of Er Grah
Hoping the link works if it does at least something has gone right today!
ah! is musicisgood a blog focused on under-publicized bandcamp items? i've read the blog, but hadn't put two-and-two together, apparently. a "bandcamp-centric blog" would be a pretty cool idea, btw.
- They do from time to time come up with some good stuff
it was you who escalated that to "bandcamp-centric". I know I cited you, but it was not that escalation that I had in mind, just the proliferation of blogs using bandcamp streaming.
ETA: And that reminded me again of this article; the existence of 10 songs is not necessarily any evidence of sustained artistic effort.
NP: the trans-kraut