ContentSphere - Music & Media in an Online Culture

Finally. Editing of videos, compiling all material and statements took more time than expected. But it’s - almost - done.

Unfortunately, most statements are available in German only. Yet some of the sessions were held in English.

I’m still missing the sessions on collection societies and DIY marketing, the latter featuring Amanda Palmer and Georgia Wonder. Though one video I’m sure you will enjoy: Amanda Palmer live at Münze Berlin (almost 80 minutes).

Right now, the documentation on Vimeo lists 59 videos. This includes statements from participants right after panels they were involved in as well as full videos of some sessions. Much thanks to the guys from PeopleZapping as well as to Jens Best who was heavily involved into editing the videos. Btw, these videos are the result from our webcasts - please don’t expect HD material shot with the best and most expensive equipment you can find at Amsterdam’s IBC.

Also, you might browse the Flickr group mainly featuring pictures by Robert Eysoldt, Karola Riegler, Sim Sullen and Gaga Nielsen. The type of copyright licence depends on the photographer and the picture.

I came across this when browsing this year’s program to Luxembourg’s Sonic Visions festival and - you guessed it - conference.

Obviously, the question is a more rhetoric one. At least I hope so. Too bad if announced panel’s conclusion would be to reduce and cut conferences. Of course, some conferences appear dispensable. Actually, changes in music industry indicate that some sort of conferences has become redundant.
Continue reading "Do We Need Music Conferences?" »

While planning for my upcoming blog posts I thought it might be a good idea to feature some new and rather unknown artists now and then. Hey! This is about music - and if there’s someone real good who deserves to get more attention… let’s do it.

You may remember that when I reviewed the Peter Doherty gig months before I mentioned the opener to be worthwhile getting their own article. Here it is.

The Bony King of Nowhere - that’s what they are called. Actually, “they” means “he”. Because it’s Bram Vanparys from Ghent in Belgium plus supporting musicians.

Continue reading "Recommended Music: "The Bony King of..." »

Accidentally, I came across a musician lately. It is a story about how social media should work.

In April, @cellonaut from Twitter followed me. Just as always when someone follows, I inspected his tweets and bio... hm, cello player. Quite obvious from his Twitter alias. Hash tags told me he was about to play my home town in May. Then I got to his site: The sound examples simply blew me away (see “Press” and “CDs”). I had to go see him play. I had to CONTACT him. Xing and Facebook got us fully connected. We arranged for an interview. Btw, he’s great at tweeting too... on his way from Hamburg to Trier (where he was about to play) he was kind of twinterviewed - @hunderttausend, Trier online mag, played Q&A for 6 (!) hours.

A musician, playing an instrument as traditional as a cello in a most non-traditional way. Open to online life. That’s great. This has to be fun.

Now, you may ask yourself - who is this guy?
Continue reading "Introducing "Cellonaut" Wolfram..." »

03.05.: Peter Doherty, Esch-sur-Alzette (Luxembourg), Rockhal Club

[Deutsche Version] I didn’t quite know what to expect when buying my ticket. I had the Babyshambles’ Down In Albion and Shotter’s Nation playing on iTunes every now and then – random play that is, about 20 songs within a pool of 12.000... The ska/reggae bits I don’t like that much, otherwise I was pleased (and curious) enough to check him out.

Doherty went into his set at about 9:45pm, walking... strolling...erm, well, stumbling on and across the stage. I got this awkward feeling – yes, this is what everyone expects and so he starts to fill this role.

Continue reading "Sing Me Any Song By Peter Doherty - Can You?..." »

[Deutsche Version] Andrew Dubber just recently pitched a topic to Popkomm - "Music As Culture". If you read the outline of this hopefully upcoming speech at New Music Strategies, you might recognise a bit of Lawrence Lessig's "Free Culture".

Dubber is absolutely right in labeling it "important" and "urgent".

We've seen the USA extending copyright terms, and European countries suggesting to do so. Just yesterday, the European parliament in a first reading voted in favour of a prolongation by extending the copyright term from 50 to 70 years. I mentioned it before - this definitely does harm to culture. Strict legislation and overly harsh fines result in a "permission culture", as Lessig puts it.

Internet Means Creativity

Point is, we must embrace the very fact that culture lives within the internet. The web advances culture. These are the new tools. As often, lobbyism for the old paradigm tries to build shrines for technologies while understanding and sensibly implementing the new would yield better results and stimulate the market. Actually, the market, which means culture, right now is strangled. And it's not The Pirate Bay that does. It is the collective understanding of today's society of terms as "intellectual property", "piracy", and "lost sales".

Continue reading "Popkomm's arising: Dubber - Music, Culture, and..." »

[UPDATE: This article is linked and commented by Michael Masnick on TechDirt].

Sorry if I'm a bit late on this one, but I've taken some days off. However, this one is by far too barefaced to be believed. I'm afraid it's no April fools' joke.

You will remember my article on music distribution platform Jamendo going with Creative Commons. Today, I just read news from a week ago that they are about to integrate a new search tool. It supports promoters, agencies, movie makers and game manufacturers by providing search categories like mood, occasion, genre and language.

Artists participating in Jamendo's distribution model can opt-in for Jamendo PRO. Business customers of Jamendo who would like to make commercial use of tracks offered can purchase licenses within Jamendo PRO. This differs from private customers who may download everything for free. Most importantly, it's an additional source of revenue for artists (and Jamendo) that adds to income from ads.

The new tool helps business people interested in searching for the right music - instead of thoroughly relying on communication and recommendation via Jamendo. Any process like this is destined to be too time consuming.

... and then there's GEMA, Germany's collecting institution.

Continue reading "GEMA vs. Jamendo et al. - Get Money for Nothing" »