Weekly Roundup: All the Music News And Writing I Happened To Come Across And Thought Was Interesting

This is the first in what I hope will be a weekly report on my blog. It’s not meant to be comprehensive, or definitive, or tell you everything you need to know about the music business. It’s not ‘Music Week’, it’s ‘What I Randomly Encountered This Week. Just a bundle of links to interesting stories, and a brief account of why I think they’re interesting.

http://www.liveunsigned.com/blog/2011/02/when-do-you-need-a-manager/

http://www.liveunsigned.com/blog/2011/02/when-will-the-band-start-making-money/

More very sound and sensible advice for the DIY musician from Matt Stevens and Live Unsigned.

http://techcrunch.com/2011/02/24/myspace-music-loses-audience-president/

http://techcrunch.com/2011/02/25/os-x-lion-death-of-cd/

A couple of interesting reports from TechCrunch. Firstly, MySpace’s downward spiral continues (hooray!). Secondly, the next version of OSX is expected to do away with an optical install disk, clearing the way for more Apple computers to ship without an optical drive, and thus causing the death of the CD. Huh? That’s going to stop the people who currently buy music CDs from wanting to continue? Bullshit, but an interesting development, anyway.

http://www.verbicidemagazine.com/blog/poly-styrene-diagnosed-with-cancer/1329

Very sad news irrespective of who it happens to, but X-Ray Spex and Poly Styrene are important landmarks in the history of British underground music.

http://mog.com/blog_post/content/3472/2818482

The Beastie Boys are releasing a new album in April, 'Hot Sauce Committee Pt.2'. That is all.

http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2011/02/4-reasons-why-the-cd-release-complex-is-dead.html

Further portents of the death of the music industry. I wish it’d hurry up and die. There’s only one kind of industrial music I like and that’s industrial music. If you see what I mean.

http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/index.php/archives/2011/02/25/paperless/

An informed perspective on paperless ticketing.

http://www.bostonconservatory.edu/s/940/Bio.aspx?sid=940&gid=1&pgid=1241

Heartfelt thanks to Faderhead for sharing this one. A philosophical discussion of the value of music, that deals with stuff that everybody involved in music should be thinking about and discussing.

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/carl-barat-dances-to-venture-capitalists-tune-2227591.html

And finally, thanks to Matt Stevens for finding this one. Those DIY musicians lucky enough to be famous still need some financial leverage to reach their large numbers of fans, and The Libertines are turning to venture capitalists to provide it.

There will be another album review on Wednesday (of the fascinating ‘Oi! A Nova Música Brasileira!’ from Mais Um Discos) and another on Saturday, and a further weekly roundup in a week’s time. Until then, be bad and do things I wouldn’t do.