Yeah, we think the cloud is a big deal…
Its amazing how fast news travels.
One Tweet and then, boom!, the world knows Amazon released a cloud-based music locker. There’s been a lot of analysis, and we thought we’d weigh in with some interesting perspectives- those of 20-something millennials.
Is Amazon’s new music locker a “killer-app”? Probably not. Its cool, its convenient, but other developers are likely to jump into this space (lets point out that Amazon isn’t the first) and continue to develop new and innovative services that meet a variety of sub-markets and music fans.
That said, Amazon’s release made for some interesting classroom discussion this week (please note- all of the principals at NoWare Media are also post-secondary educators).
“Who has heard about the new Amazon service?”
Hands go up. And then several students mention, “We’ve already signed up” (45 minutes after the service was announced).
And 32 hours later, some students admit to using the new cloud based system to share massive amounts of music with their friends. Our new “cloud” is actually going to look like lots of little clouds all sharing and interacting together through a variety of untraceable connections…
We’ve tried suing P2P pirates with John Doe lawsuits. We’ve debated the merits of “3 Strikes” rules in Congress. How will we stop this?
All in all, we think these latest cloud-based announcements are a bit of a bellwether. A groundswell is growing and we’re likely on the precipice of some significant shifts in music sharing, discovery, and consumption (See Hypebot’s recent post on the matter).
We don’t pretend to know what the future will bring, but we tomorrow is now closer to today than we ever imagined…
We think Apple’s subscription fees might be fair.
Full disclosure- we are not a print media publisher. Therefore, we certainly don’t have as much on the line with regard to the monetization of digital content as someone like Conde Nast.
But, we are proud owners of a new iPad 2 (thanks SXSW Pop-Up Store).
And, as we’ve toyed around with the iPad for over a week now, we’ve realized it really excels at one particular thing- enticing you to buy more content.
The iPad seems designed to digest media. Lots of it. Lately, we’ve been visiting the App Store as often as we do the bathroom. We’re buying books, magazines, albums, games, and almost anything else we can swipe a finger at.
(“Artree” is really cool even though it has absolutely no practical value besides being pretty…)
Our point is, that even though it might be disconcerting when one retailer dominates an industry and wants 30% of new subscription revenue, the iPad makes you buy more.
We now subscribe to the Economist, Spin PLAY (a really gorgeous media-rich iPad version of Spin Magazine), and the New York Times. We’ve bought and read new books like “The Information” by James Gleick and “Socialnomics” by Eric Qualman.
Bottom line, we don’t plan on curtailing this level of consumption anytime soon. Its too fun. We’re learning, reading and engaging in new ways that are tremendously compelling and its highly unlikely that we’d suddenly purchase all of this media without the iPad.
Maybe, just maybe, if we loosen the reins to content on devices that excel at accessibility, more awareness will ultimately drive more revenue.
Despite the uncharted territory, we think this is a pretty neat time to be alive…
We have a new favorite Quick Key command…
A few days back AVID released an update for ProTools, version 9.0.2.
And, while the overall upgrade is mostly bug fixes, it does include a new Quick Key command that we’re really excited about:
[CONTROL \]
Instantly, you can create new playlists without reaching for your mouse.
Bam! Seriously, this little function is going to be a time saver…
Thanks People of AVID!
There’s nothing wrong with the music business. #SXSW
We are now the converted and we have a gospel to preach- the music industry is going to be fine.
The annual South by Southwest Conference is many things to many people. Keynote presentations, panels, corporate advertising sponsored parties, and a host of other events quite literally consume downtown Austin, Texas, every March.
This year was no different. Attractive 20-somethings were running around with squirt guns as part of a Ray Bans campaign, surprise shows were announced by every iteration of rock star including Kanye West and the Foo Fighters, and Bob Geldoff and Yoko Ono led impassioned speeches on the state of our industry and society.
Yet through it all, there was one constant- long lines. Everywhere. For every genre of music imaginable.
Human beings have a very real and inextricable relationship with music. It can move us, motivate us, comfort us, and bring us together.
This is a good thing. It reiterates that our “product”, if we’re callous enough to classify it as such, is appreciated and maybe even needed. Granted, monitization is a whole other matter, but if there is a line and a demand that extends 6 blocks, we believe that might be a pretty good indication of a healthy industry wherein revenue is eventually possible.
And, we ourselves waited in line for several shows that were nothing short of life-changing. Every single night we heard music that moved us and reminded us why we do what we do.
What follows is only a partial list of the tremendous talent we saw, but these acts collectively made us listen attentively, bob our heads, scream, and even dance (thankfully, it was dark). Thank you for bringing your hearts, souls, and voices to Austin this year, we won’t forget it…
Sharon Van Etten
Haley Bonar
Dawes
Cold War Kids
The Head and the Heart
Boy and Bear
Doomtree
Foster the People
The Joy Formidable
Sometimes, paradigm shifts can be pretty subtle. #SXSW first impressions.
We know, SXSW ended last Saturday. And, if we were truly on the ball, we would have been live Tweeting and blogging the whole time.
We were busy. There was free Macallan.
That said, it was an interesting conference. We’ve been attending South By for years and looking around, we noticed some subtle, yet very real, things were different…
One of the title sponsors was again a car company, but this year that car was electric- the Chevy Volt.
The Trade Show had row upon row of exhibitors as in years past, however this year, 95% of the companies were interactive firms including Google and more app manufacturers than we could count.
The Music Expo, conversely, had 1/6 the exhibitors and was poorly attended.
As was to be expected, conference attendees were running frantically across the city day and night. This year, however, everyone was glued to their mobile device of choice running the new SXSW Go app (which was really amazing) instead of a printed conference guide.
Long lines weren’t only relegated to the Fader Fort. The pop-up Apple store had people waiting around the block for the iPad 2.
The majority of the artists exhibiting at Flatstock were using Square for all of their transactions (as were half of the band merch tables throughout the festival) instead of a cash box.
Atlantic was the only major record label to sponsor a party. And, it was co-sponsored by Chop Shop, the label arm of the now ubiquitous licensing and music supervision company.
We met more music fans in line (who had come down simply to see as many bands as possible over the 4 day event) than music industry colleagues.
All in all, we saw a myriad of subtle differences between past years and 2011. Aggregated together, our observations made us consider that maybe the music industry isn’t changing as conventional wisdom would suggest.
We think it has probably already changed.
Some people seriously need our help right now.
Yamaha, Roland, Sony, and countless other Japanese companies have been synonymous with our industry for decades. Their products quite literally line the walls of our facility. Yamaha NS-10s, the Roland Juno 106 and D-50, the DX 7, the Sony C 37a… These products and the efforts of their designers are parts of our daily lives.
In short, we are extremely grateful for the innovation, support, and creativity of the Japanese community.
Tonight, it goes without saying that the people of Japan need our support. Currently, the reporting, footage, and related news coming out of that country is simply harrowing.
The Red Cross has an amazing tag line- “Down the Street, Across the Country, and Around the World”. That is who they help. And, while literally, the people of Japan are on the other side of planet, professionally, they’ve been with us throughout our entire careers and deserve not only our deepest sympathy, but our support.
We have had a good month. Many others have not. If you can help, please do. We pulled the list below from a post yesterday morning at ProSoundNews, but know that you can also easily donate $10 by texting “REDCROSS” to 90999.
Thank you.
Relief Organizations:
The American Red Cross: Japan Earthquake and Pacific Tsunami Relief
www.redcross.org
Save the Children: Emergency Relief for Japan Quake
www.savethechildren.org/japanquake
Salvation Army
donate.salvationarmyusa.org
Doctors Without Borders
www.doctorswithoutborders.org
Yep, its the little things.
Yesterday, we had a drummer (we know, it was only a drummer) who commented that we have the best studio around.
We really don’t believe him (our skylight is leaking today and they probably don’t at Real World…).
But what led him to compliment or humble facility wasn’t actually any of the things we generally get excited about. It wasn’t the mic locker, it wasn’t the keyboard collection, and it wasn’t our outboard rack.
We had band-aids (Peter had cut his hand on a hi-hat during an uptempo song and needed some basic first aid).
We often forget how powerful simple gestures, creature comforts, and even a hint of compassion can be. Our lives, and further our careers, are not sustained by amassing physical items or equipment. Instead, it is our shared humanity, common interests, and mutual respect that engenders collaboration and makes the phone ring.
It was good to be reminded of that. It can be easy forget…
What’s your favorite mic pre for a refridgerator?
Sometimes sound design projects just get silly.
We’re recording fridge noises, Leslie motors, and even an elevator today…
How about #ThankyouThursdays?
18 years ago, a concert changed my life.
On the behest of a friend, a lowly high school kid living in the Chicago suburbs borrowed his mom’s minivan and drove into the city for a rock concert. The band, then relatively unknown, was called the Wallflowers.
For some still unknown reason, despite our age, we were able to convince the venue’s proprietors to let us into the show. However, there was one condition of our entrance- the bar manager insisted we sit on the stage. (How sitting on a stage limits teenage shenanigans is also still a mystery)
And there we sat. It was an amazing show, and for a 17 year old keyboard player to watch Rami Jaffee play both a Hammond B3 and Yamaha CP80 piano simultaneously was nothing short of magical.
I found my own Hammond at a garage sale not 2 weeks later forever changing the arc of my personal, professional, and artistic life.
Thank you Rami.
And thank you to all of the other creative musicians here and abroad that inspire us each and every day.
We love ZVex effects (maybe a little too much).
Yeah, we know. They who die with the most toys win right? And any guitar player worth their salt should have a wall of Boss, MXR, Moog, and every other ilk of guitar pedal available.
And yes, while there are no shortage of astounding craftspeople building amazing effects processors, sometimes, we think you could just get by with pedals from ZVex.
Over the past 8 days, all of the tones for a current project have come from the Zvex Mastotron, the ZVex Distortron, or a combination of the two. These pedals, inexpensive within the boutique realm, have tone for days. Further still, when other colors are needed, we’re more likely to reach for our ZVex Seek-trem and Wah-Probe (which is fun to say) than just about anything else.
Damn fine tools. Great job gang.
(Although we couldn’t live without our TC Electronic Polytune either)
keep looking »
You have managed to find NoWare. We are a music based creative house located in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
