Journal Week Twelve

I don’t really have much to say about the MML website. I think there could be circumstances under which it would be very helpful. I can’t really think of how I would ever use it personally, but I could see it being useful for music libraries and archives.

Our other reading, from Music is Your Future was interesting. I enjoyed the very clear way the authors laid out how they saw the music business functioning. I guess I was a little surprised that they didn’t feel they had seen how the business worked until many years of working in it. Maybe I’ve been lucky enough to read many different written accounts of people’s experience in the music industry so I feel I have an idea of how things work. I’ve also seen the DIY side of things as a fan, musician and friend of musicians.

I definitely agree with their assessment of the Catch-22 of the industry. It seems the only thing to do is to get out there and do it. Just starting somewhere can seem so intimidating that I understand why people don’t get out there more often. Everyone has to start somewhere, though, whether it’s as somebody’s opening act or on a college radio station or at a coffee shop.

It’s interesting to read the discussion of the big eating the small now, after some of the other reading from this semester. I don’t think anyone is doing all that well at this point and time. There are some large acts that are, and some smaller, independent ones that are. I think we are moving away from a music culture where only a few big acts are successful and to one where regional music scenes are stronger and more independent. And regions may not be geographical, they may be self chosen regions by genre. At least, it is my hope that we are moving toward systems of distribution online and physically that will support or engender this. I’ve seen quite a few US acts find success in Europe and not in the US. It’s not as if this doesn’t have precedence, many jazz musicians were well known and well paid in Europe while unknown or largely ignored in the States. It does make me feel better that there are people somewhere who appreciate music that does not get listened to in the US.