As this century and millennium race into the future, the Internet is making big waves everywhere, and this is no less true in the music industry. However, to some of the more established moguls of this somewhat exclusive club, the waves are thundering through more as unwelcomed shock waves because of MP3. Yet musicians and fans, generally speaking, are enjoying a stunning liberation from this new high definition audio medium.
Is this really such a clear line in the ground of an arts civil war? Are lawyers and record companies really only out for their own interests, as Chuck D of Public Enemy claims, or are they really trying to protect the artists? Is it really mostly just new, unsigned artists, rebellious rappers, and students downloading free music who see the benefit of MP3?
Ray Manzarek, co-founder of The Doors, shared his thoughts about MP3 very enthusiastically with me the other night:
"What a wonderful way to get your esoteric music out to the public. Art first!," said Ray. "I'm all for it as long as the person who makes the music gets paid for his art. However way the artist's work finds effluence is great. Definitely sounds like the New Age to me."
And, artistically speaking, Ray has hit this nail on the head. Be it a New Age artist or a Rockabilly King like Rocky Burnette, the artists all have good reason to be as excited as the fans.
"Artist to consumer, " Rocky thinks out loud, "It should have happened like this a long time ago. There would have been a lot less casualties along the way."
It's no secret that, in my forum posts, I have often included pop-up RealAudio players that promote mostly the music of Rocky and the musically historic Burnette family. It's also true that RealAudio remains the most prolific music format on the Internet, used not only by artists to promote themselves, but an impressive collection of real-time radio broadcasts that include everything from the eclectic mix of NYC's public WFMU FM, the earthy Americana rock of California Central Coast's KPIG FM (complete with its "live from the Pigsty" HamCam), the BBC World Radio Service Live and other international radio stations ~ plus Internet-only webcasts like the once Long Beach, California-based legendary "Pure Rock" KNAC.
But there's a big difference between RealAudio and MP3 that has industry bigwigs very concerned. Whereas RealAudio can reach high resolution CD quality in huge file size, it is generally streamed in Internet friendlier small files using low resolution mono. The industry sees that more as a sort of promotional Internet "radio play." MP3, on the other hand is high resolution stereo that is downloaded and stored for play-at-will by the otherwise CD-buying fan.
In a world where Top 40 regional radio has largely been replaced by nationally-cloned/satellite-fed Top 20 (or maybe even just Top 10) radio play, it has become increasingly harder for either new artists to break out, or even established ones to keep exposure. So MP3 also offers artists the opportunity of not only reaching an audience via the Internet bypassing radio, but the means to sell downloads of their music directly, bypassing record companies.
Representing mainly the large record companies, the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), is leading an all-out attack on what they rightly see as copyright endangerment over the Internet. But some like Chuck D, who has just released the anti-industry "Swindlers' Lust" free on the Public Enemy website, argue that the industry is more interested in maintaining control than protecting the recording artists they benefit from.
With the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals having just ruled against the RIAA in favor of the Diamond Multimedia Systems Rio portable MP3 player (which allows you to store MP3 downloads for playback away from your computer), this war may still be far from over. But, as Chuck D has said, "They can't stop this now. This is the wild wild west, and everybody's got guns now."
With theglobe.com having invited me to write about MP3, I have realized this is only the first of a series of MP3 articles in my new cyber ONtheBEAT entertainment column. For one thing, listening to more MP3 music in the past week than ever, I have at last realized the limitations of the speakers that came with my computer. MP3 has definitely raised the multimedia PC standards.
In future articles I will not only review speakers, sound cards, portable hardware players, internet players, the copyright and legal issues, but with my audio/video production experience, will also explore how you can best create your own Internet music and video files.
And, yes, I will continue to write about and interview the artists we all love so much.
