you hear it first

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1. Last night I dreamed about awkward conversations with musicians I adore.

2. Altercation this week had a piece from Barry Ritholtz on the concert part of the music industry, and how it's responding to the market by offering better value to consumers, rather than, you know, pursuing legislation to protect a dying business model. Then Stephen Anderson followed up with a letter (scroll down) about hard times for the recording studios:

Artists are tending toward recording at homes, either their own, or rentals, to keep costs down, and that affects studio rates. Renting a McMansion for $20K per month is still more cost effective than paying $1200/day for a conventional studio. For some recordings, that is fine. But when the same artist needs to do a "string date," they might come to Capitol, my old home, and then gripe that they no longer get the service they are used to. That's because the studio, in an effort to lower costs, doesn't replace key personnel who leave, or who are laid off as costs are cut.

3. Tin Cat can't afford a McMansion, so we've taken over a quadrant of Tom's mom's house this week to record a good demo with our friend Cameron. Evan came over last night to record drum tracks on the eve of his other band's tour. Here's documentary evidence:



4. I wish I had time to post about the shows I'm booking! Maybe later.

5. I'd like to draw your attention to the redesigned site of Scott Andrew, America's favorite headless pop superhero.

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A followup letter today argues that Anderson is right about what's happening to studios, but wrong that it's bad for music:

For instead of a business dominated by a New York/LA cartel of established rooms with exorbitant day-rates fed by bloated record company budgets, you have a flowering of small flexible independent studios available to musicians of little means and, more and more, the preferred choice of those with ample means who have grown up with the new paradigm or simply want the time to create without the overhead.

Hooray.