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The Janis Ian solution

August 5, 2002 by Scott Rosenberg

Everyone’s linking to it, and with good reason — Janis Ian’s proposal for breaking out of the online music logjam: “All the record companies get together and build a single giant website, with everything in their catalogues that’s currently out of print available on it, and agree to experiment for one year.” Charge a reasonable fee per download. See what happens.

Of course, it’s hard to imagine the record companies collaborating like this. But if even two got together and started down this road it could snowball. Somehow antitrust objections would have to be overcome. Still, it’s a great dream. Maybe there are still some dreamers in the music industry.

Filed Under: Music, Technology

Music to no one’s ears

July 29, 2002 by Scott Rosenberg

In tonight’s Salon cover story, Farhad Manjoo surveys the sorry state of the online music world. Much of the file-trading world has been hobbled by the RIAA’s legal assault, yet the music industry has not stepped forward with an alternative that makes sense.

In its prime, Audiogalaxy was beautiful, even better than Napster — it allowed us to hunt for an obscurity even when the people who had the track weren’t currently online, then download it once they reconnected. I used Audiogalaxy to fill out the odd corners of my library with live recordings and rarities; every artist whose work I downloaded and kept was one whose entire recorded commercial oeuvre I’ve already paid for in CD form.

My demographic profile may not be exactly what the record companies are after (I’m 43), but I’ve probably spent $1000 a year on music for the last decade or so; it’s my biggest personal-entertainment expense by far. My music purchases soared during the heyday of Napster and Audiogalaxy, when I could easily sample new bands and new work; in recent months my purchases have tapered off. If the music industry wants to know where its sales have gone, there’s one clue.

In the meantime, anyone who’s looking for an online music service that offers variety and depth and doesn’t try to control your behavior or limit how you can listen to the music you pay for, I recommend EMusic. For $10 a month you get unlimited access to their catalog. No, they don’t have the major labels’ hot hits. But they have enough interesting stuff to keep the alternative/indie fan happy for months — like vast quantities of Guided by Voices, They Might Be Giants, Yo La Tengo and Pavement — plus oldies, jazz and other eclectica.((Full disclosure: EMusic has worked with Salon on the music mixes we offer our Premium subscribers. I’m not involved with that — and I gladly pay the company for its service.)

Filed Under: Music, Technology

Ferry ‘cross the Lethe

July 26, 2002 by Scott Rosenberg

A new album from Bryan Ferry? in 2002? On “Frantic,” the sheen on Ferry’s croon has cracked a bit — with age, or disuse, or pain, I don’t know. But it’s becoming. The perfection of his “Avalon”-style gloss was seductive but barren — a sort of vocal embalming had taken place. Here he sounds battered, but alive and kicking back, with a mixture of Dylan covers, dance numbers and old Roxy Music-style extravaganzas. I think it’s his best work since “Siren.”

Filed Under: Music

More on the John Walker Lindh song

July 25, 2002 by Scott Rosenberg

Steve Earle’s John Walker song: Anders Smith Lindall has heard it and reports that “Earle doesn’t pontificate and never breaks character, much less glorify Lindh.”

Filed Under: Music

John Walker’s Blues

July 24, 2002 by Scott Rosenberg

Leave it to country-rocker Steve Earle to write the first song about John Walker Lindh, American outlaw: John Walker’s Blues. I haven’t heard the song yet, but Earle is a smart musician who’s earned his compassionate streak the hard way. And I’l bet that what he has to say on the subject is more valuable than a hundred op-ed thumbsuckers.

Filed Under: Music

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