MUSIC|MEDIA|DESIGN

vertigo_1990s: Torture Garden, Scream Boody Murder, Sex Device.

Wow.  I can’t believe anyone would bring up my old band 12 years after our last show.  While we were friends with Scream Bloody Murder, Torture Garden keyboardist Dave Arps later played in Sex Device, in our 4 piece era, and co-produced a couple tracks (maybe one of the ones linked here? I’m downloading the files now!)

Sadly I have no rights to the catalog – the band was literally made for DVD (not hyperbole – we saw the medium as the natural outlet for our work, and Brand New World was conceived as a CD+V (pre DVD format).  In many respects, that band’s challenges are the root of my career.  At every stage, I had to invent tools and techniques.  Media Design was at the core of the solutions.

Forrester to Music Industry: It’s the Consumer, Stupid | Epicenter | Wired.com.

[Note: the story linked above are part of an article paraphrasing a $500 Forrester research paper, not the actual source.]

Any reader of this site knows my take on the “conclusion” or whatever the headline’s relationship is to the story… “Duh!” No news there.

But the diagram above interests me on a couple levels.  First, it’s important to note that it seems to be more of a diagram of standard features than a suggested interface.  Still, even as that, it suggests a level of interaction that may or may not be sustainable or possible for most artists (forget the initial technology investments).  This points to a gets to an underlying problem we all face, even in our daily lives: we live in a subscription world, where we die a death by a thousand features, each sold as a necessity.  Whether it’s a basic cell line, a Blackberry or an iPhone, we can be compelled by profession, employer, or necessity to subscribe to something.  Actually lots of things.

In that context, how many “bands” can any “consumer” really support?  Because that’s where this leads.  The “put-put with the stars” schemes to mono AND stereo boxed tax the ecosystem to the breaking point.  Can it really sustain a full-time always-on connection to an artist or some artist’s fan?  Do we want to?  If so, how much is that really worth?

Most people aren’t super fans.  Most are doing good to know you exist… but everyone has some favorite stars.  If those star’s existence becomes so tenuous they suck up all available dollars down-market.

I like the ideas in this report, and the basic menu of features as a starting point.  It’s certainly all supportable in iTunes LP, so it’s likely to work in the major’s competing (why?) platform as well.  But let’s not get carried away, and certainly, let’s not consider this feature set as some sort of standard.   And by no means is it an ideal: it’s really a mash-up of what exists, and kind of works, not what works best, nor is any consideration given to what works best together.  That’s a design task, not something pure research can provide.  Nonetheless, the direction is clear, and consistent with our view: Time to move forward, and use networked data to connect fans more tightly to music and artists… as a goal that’s certainly worthwhile.