> History has been mined out Are you being remotely serious here? If you think there are no interesting events in history that haven't been done in movies, words cannot even begin to describe how wrong you are.
> Hollywood is now down to recycling 1960s TV shows True, but that seems to be more caused by laziness and commercial conservatism. There are plenty of independent filmmakers out there coming up with new ideas. Go to a local film festival instead of your local popcorn movie franchise and have a look.
>Consider music. >Nobody has done a major new symphony for decades Lots of people are writing symphonies. You or I or somebody else might not consider them "major". Maybe that's because that style of music isn't very popular any more? Last time I checked, not many people were doing cave paintings either. Does that mean humanity's creative spirit is exhausted? Of course not.
>Rock music peaked decades ago Utter rubbish. Block Party's "Silent Alarm" is worlds better than any of the meandering crap filling the airwaves a few decades ago. Faith No More's "Angel Dust" is still one of the most groundbreaking and powerful rock albums ever released. Pull your head out.
>House music is stuck OK this is actually true, but that's largely because house music was "stuck" when it started. It was always meant to be fairly brainless dancefloor filler. It has changed little since then, and thus possesses roughly the same creative relevance now than it did then, i.e. extremely little.
>Rap doesn't shock anybody any more It shocks some people. Maybe fewer than it once did. But is that all it was designed to do? And again, how on earth is that evidence of the lack of creative ideas and/or potential? Rockabilly music completely died in 70s. Now it is enjoying a resurgance. So what? Things go in cycles. Deal with it.
There is so much amazing music coming out at the moment that it is just embarassing (especially in the underground electronic scene; I could easily name literally hundreds of artists making awesome groundbreaking music, right now). Plenty of great films too. I haven't even gotten started on Asian cinema (which is enormously strong at the moment). It's just that mainstream film / book / music publishers (especially in the West) have become dominated by bean-counters, accountants and risk managers. That is a contingent fact concerning certain companies, and has nothing whatsoever to do with whether or not we have explored all possible creative avenues. Of course we haven't. It just sounds like you've given up looking.
That's a very unfair and irresponsible path to take. It's only the major labels that are using these ridiculous copy protection methods (and I agree with you 100% that these copy protection methods are completely stupid). I run a very small independent industrial label with a friend of mine (cranialfracture.org for what it's worth). We don't put any copy protection on our cds, never have, never will. We'd like people to buy our cds, because then we can put out another one. If nobody buys the cds, the label can't operate and will close down. And the artist will never get released (except as mp3s, which are a lossy compression format and doesn't faithfully represent the original audio recording of the music). We aren't in this to make money, we've never taken a cent from the label bank account, we're just trying to get enough money together to put out our next cd. That's how small independent labels work. And we need all the support we can get.
Stop supporting the big record labels if you want. Boycott every release that has copy protection. But don't stop buying cds from the little guys who are trying to do the right thing.
I'm suprised people are talking about a CDR label like its a new or unusual thing... CDR labels have been around for quite a while.
A little background: I run a small industrial record label, Cranial Fracture Recordings (www.fracture.ar.com.au). We do proper CDs, not CDRs, for various reasons. But a lot of people in industrial music do CDR releases (I mean real industrial music; power noise, experimental, dark ambient, field recordings, power electronics, etc, not bands like Nine Inch Nails, VNV Nation, etc).
Some industrial labels do only CDRs, like Flesh Made Word (who put out some outstandingly good music), or Zanftig Research. Some do both, CDs and CDRs, like Ad Noiseam or Frozen Empire Media. Oddly enough, these CDR releases are nearly all limited. If you ask them, its unlikely they'll burn a copy, even if you're prepared to pay. An excellent New York power noise/electronics artist Navicon Torture Technologies (for my money one of the best electronic musicians in the world today) put out a lot of self-released CDRs with print runs of 20 or 30 copies; they sell out in a matter of weeks or days. One of them, Power Romance, was of really exceptional quality and was re-released on proper CD format on my label. We tried to make it worthwhile for the lucky (very few) who had the CDR to buy it; it was remastered and had two bonus tracks.
Industrial music is obviously a niche genre. We don't get a lot of sales. The reason people would go for a CDR release is usually simple economies of scale. The minimum print run for CDs that a studio will offer you is 500. If you're only expecting to sell say 100 CDs, and you're not really planning on sending off lots of promo copies, these labels will go with the cheaper option of printing 100 CDRs. Now the cost per unit is actually higher for CDRs. In Australia, a print run of 500 CDs will cost you about $1000 (not including mastering, artwork printing, etc). A print run of 100 CDRs will cost you about $300. But as I said, if you're only going to sell 100, you're better of going CDR.
Now CDRs will never really be sold in a shop, but these underground (much as I hate that word, you know what I mean though) labels sell through their website, or through word of mouth, to friends, etc. Or do trades with other CDR labes. So that's no great loss.
I'm guessing there are similar CDR labels in other niche genres such as black metal, hardcore, etc, but I'm not entirely sure.
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> History has been mined out
Are you being remotely serious here? If you think there are no interesting events in history that haven't been done in movies, words cannot even begin to describe how wrong you are.
> Hollywood is now down to recycling 1960s TV shows
True, but that seems to be more caused by laziness and commercial conservatism. There are plenty of independent filmmakers out there coming up with new ideas. Go to a local film festival instead of your local popcorn movie franchise and have a look.
>Consider music.
>Nobody has done a major new symphony for decades
Lots of people are writing symphonies. You or I or somebody else might not consider them "major". Maybe that's because that style of music isn't very popular any more? Last time I checked, not many people were doing cave paintings either. Does that mean humanity's creative spirit is exhausted? Of course not.
>Rock music peaked decades ago
Utter rubbish. Block Party's "Silent Alarm" is worlds better than any of the meandering crap filling the airwaves a few decades ago. Faith No More's "Angel Dust" is still one of the most groundbreaking and powerful rock albums ever released. Pull your head out.
>House music is stuck
OK this is actually true, but that's largely because house music was "stuck" when it started. It was always meant to be fairly brainless dancefloor filler. It has changed little since then, and thus possesses roughly the same creative relevance now than it did then, i.e. extremely little.
>Rap doesn't shock anybody any more
It shocks some people. Maybe fewer than it once did. But is that all it was designed to do? And again, how on earth is that evidence of the lack of creative ideas and/or potential? Rockabilly music completely died in 70s. Now it is enjoying a resurgance. So what? Things go in cycles. Deal with it.
There is so much amazing music coming out at the moment that it is just embarassing (especially in the underground electronic scene; I could easily name literally hundreds of artists making awesome groundbreaking music, right now). Plenty of great films too. I haven't even gotten started on Asian cinema (which is enormously strong at the moment). It's just that mainstream film / book / music publishers (especially in the West) have become dominated by bean-counters, accountants and risk managers. That is a contingent fact concerning certain companies, and has nothing whatsoever to do with whether or not we have explored all possible creative avenues. Of course we haven't. It just sounds like you've given up looking.
That's a very unfair and irresponsible path to take. It's only the major labels that are using these ridiculous copy protection methods (and I agree with you 100% that these copy protection methods are completely stupid). I run a very small independent industrial label with a friend of mine (cranialfracture.org for what it's worth). We don't put any copy protection on our cds, never have, never will. We'd like people to buy our cds, because then we can put out another one. If nobody buys the cds, the label can't operate and will close down. And the artist will never get released (except as mp3s, which are a lossy compression format and doesn't faithfully represent the original audio recording of the music). We aren't in this to make money, we've never taken a cent from the label bank account, we're just trying to get enough money together to put out our next cd. That's how small independent labels work. And we need all the support we can get.
Stop supporting the big record labels if you want. Boycott every release that has copy protection. But don't stop buying cds from the little guys who are trying to do the right thing.
I'm suprised people are talking about a CDR label like its a new or unusual thing... CDR labels have been around for quite a while.
A little background: I run a small industrial record label, Cranial Fracture Recordings (www.fracture.ar.com.au). We do proper CDs, not CDRs, for various reasons. But a lot of people in industrial music do CDR releases (I mean real industrial music; power noise, experimental, dark ambient, field recordings, power electronics, etc, not bands like Nine Inch Nails, VNV Nation, etc).
Some industrial labels do only CDRs, like Flesh Made Word (who put out some outstandingly good music), or Zanftig Research. Some do both, CDs and CDRs, like Ad Noiseam or Frozen Empire Media. Oddly enough, these CDR releases are nearly all limited. If you ask them, its unlikely they'll burn a copy, even if you're prepared to pay. An excellent New York power noise/electronics artist Navicon Torture Technologies (for my money one of the best electronic musicians in the world today) put out a lot of self-released CDRs with print runs of 20 or 30 copies; they sell out in a matter of weeks or days. One of them, Power Romance, was of really exceptional quality and was re-released on proper CD format on my label. We tried to make it worthwhile for the lucky (very few) who had the CDR to buy it; it was remastered and had two bonus tracks.
Industrial music is obviously a niche genre. We don't get a lot of sales. The reason people would go for a CDR release is usually simple economies of scale. The minimum print run for CDs that a studio will offer you is 500. If you're only expecting to sell say 100 CDs, and you're not really planning on sending off lots of promo copies, these labels will go with the cheaper option of printing 100 CDRs. Now the cost per unit is actually higher for CDRs. In Australia, a print run of 500 CDs will cost you about $1000 (not including mastering, artwork printing, etc). A print run of 100 CDRs will cost you about $300. But as I said, if you're only going to sell 100, you're better of going CDR.
Now CDRs will never really be sold in a shop, but these underground (much as I hate that word, you know what I mean though) labels sell through their website, or through word of mouth, to friends, etc. Or do trades with other CDR labes. So that's no great loss.
I'm guessing there are similar CDR labels in other niche genres such as black metal, hardcore, etc, but I'm not entirely sure.