it was only a matter of time before the record industry decided to get serious about copyright infringement on mp3 blogs. i believe – and hopefully you do too – that mp3 blogs provide a gateway to music for their readers. by downloading 1-2 tracks from an artist from an mp3 blog, you’re encouraged to find out more and perhaps buy an album. if the volume of email i receive from independent labels and bands is any indication, then this would appear to be a service in everyone’s favour. ‘not so’ says the international federation of the phonographic industry (IFPI) who this week forced the server closure of mp3 blog moistworks. head over to the site to read the letter and click on the comments section for an interesting range of feedback from readers.
it’s worth noting that there a couple of varying schools of thought about posting tracks on mp3 blogs. some group emails between mp3bloggers flew around this week and we definitely fall into three distinct camps. (1) legal mp3s – tracks taken from legitimate sources, i.e. the artist / label has made an mp3 available on their own servers. this is how fat planet works. (2) permission based – blogs post tracks on their own servers, but have asked permission from the artist / label to do so. (3) no permission – blogs post tracks on their own servers, without permission. version (3) is where moistworks sat and is probably the territory that the IFPI will prowl, picking off unsuspecting blogs as they go.
i’ll say here and now that i support moistworks and all blogs falling into the last category, irrespective of its legality. i wouldn’t be publishing fat planet or have heard a large % of my music collection if it wasn’t for those blogs. it’s about music education, not piracy – and the two are so far removed from each other as to be laughable. i don’t concurr with the idea that by posting 1-2 tracks on an mp3 blog that an artist loses out – these tracks are ‘feeders’ to buying albums, in the same way that the music industry has marketed singles for years. we know that singles don’t make money for an artist, so why worry about an mp3 blog that fulfills the same function? i liken mp3 blogs to radio / television – it’s all about promotion. and in this case free, positive promotion – and the IFPI wants to close it down… hopefully one day this will all seem ridiculous, today it seems incredibly harmful and short-sighted.
a final note on streaming – the industry might say ‘stream or be damned’. sure, we can stream songs rather than download, but the quality is generally poor, i can’t listen to it through anything other than PC speakers and, if you’re on a 56K modem, buffering gets to be a bitch. no, i like my music on mp3 – burn it to CD, listen on the iPod etc. the more opportunities i have for listening to the track away from the computer, the more i’m likely to fall in love with it and buy an album.
enough of that, here’s the music (from legitmate sources, natch …)
ASIAN DUB FOUNDATION [ENGLAND]
19 rebellions mp3
another track from the ‘enemy of the enemy’ album. found a remix of this tune when i was getting deep and dirty insider the uk iTunes store last weekend – in fact, there’s a whole ‘enemy of the enemy’ remix album on there, including two smart mixes of ‘la haine’ by dark dancehall / breakcore artist the bug. i’ve now fully converted my brain to the glory of the iTunes store (another knock on effect of mp3 downloading over the years…), so much so that i’ve put together a fat planet iMix, a compilation that you can download via the iTunes store. if you like the blog and you want to give something back to the artists in $$$, then this is one way to do it. click here for more fat planet iMix info.
LUNZ [GERMANY]
wobbly flu twilight mp3
if you liked half cousin in the recent post, then you might get into this too – taken from the same label, groenland, same vested interest as before. lunz are hans-joachim roedelius and tim story. roedelius is formerly from the band cluster and story is a grammy nominee for his work on ‘the legend of sleepy hollow’. i can’t confess to knowing much about cluster, but the groenland site has them cited by the chicago tribune as “one of the best-kept secrets of 20th century music”. roedelius has also collaborated with luminaries such as brian eno, holger czukay from can and the guys from neu! but expect none of that sound from this mp3 – quite the opposite. this is sparse, piano duets of incredible beauty, taken from their self-titled debut album. it’s getting further attention thanks to a 2nd release, a remix project called ‘lunz interpretations’. and this isn’t some ham-fisted exploitation venture – the remixes take the originals and craft almost entirely new tracks around them. on remix duties are alias, faultline, elbow, adem, ulrich schnauss, icarus, munk and more. there’s some streaming samples on the ‘radio shack’ over at groenland and you should go their shop while you’re there and just buy the damn thing.
BALUN [PUERTO RICO]
the glass bicycle mp3
see entry dated 221104 for more info on this electronica three-piece from puerto rico.
EZ3KIEL [FRANCE]
versus mp3
been playing a few tracks on the show recently from the french jarring effects label, from which ez3kiel comes. the label sampler is a mixture of broken beat, dub and skewed hip hop. plenty of mp3s to download from the label site. the band also have a very industrial and smart looking flash site to have a browse around.
DJ SPOOKY [US: NEW YORK]
rebirth of a nation – movement one (rough cut) mp3
spooky brings his ‘rebirth of a nation’ show to sydney next week for the festival and it’s safe to say that i’m getting excited by it. all indications are good (including this rough cut mp3). spooky has taken as his source material d.w. griffith’s ‘birth of a nation’ silent film, widely regarded as the first racist movie and responsible for sparking a resurgence of the kkk. spooky has re-appropriated the film to bring a different message, remixing the soundtrack with his own original material and representing a new edit of the film across three screens. spooky (aka paul d. miller) has a great deal to say on the subject and you can find it all in the articles section of djspooky.com.