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LISTEN TO: PLANTATION RADIO STATONS
(from the 2004 Soul-Patrol Convention)
Click on the image above (or this link) to listen to this seminar, as Kevin Amos, Ric Wilson (Mandrill), Mighty Sam McClain, Darrell McNeil (BRC) take us to school on just why Black (knee-grow) Radio stations WON'T play the music we love and what WE can do to change that...
Soul-Patrol Newsletter Headlines:
* Part 1 - "Shared experience" into an "individual experience" (Radio vs iPod)
* Part 2 - So what does this "Paradigm Shift" mean for Black Music Fans??
* Part 3 - Express Yourself and Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)
* Part 4 - When is it Good Enough, to Just to Be, Good Enough?
Welcome To The Soul-Patrol Newsletter
 This issue of the Soul-Patrol Newsletter doesn't contain any album reviews, concert reviews, artist profiles, introductions of new artists, event announcements, etc. If you are looking for those, please refer back to one of our previous issues at the following link: Soul-Patrol Newsletter Archives or click on any of the artist links on the righ hand side of this newsletter. This issue of the Soul-Patrol Newsletter is going to deal with the topic of Technology & music/culture.
The data you see presented to the left is the result of a survey we conducted with those of you who are Soul-Patrol Newsletter and Soul-Patrol Times readers. About 600 of you responded to our survey which asked the question "How much would you be willing to pay for a music file?" Rather than just simply present the data to you we thought that we should also provide some analysis/commentary on the implications of that data. That commentary is called "Brotha Can You Spare a Paradigm" and the phrase is borrowed from a song title on George Clinton's latest album.
During the year 2006 we have been discussing this topic and several related topics in various internet forums with music fans, artists, promoters, etc around the world trying to develop solutions to the crisis facing all who love music. The technology itself has advanced to the point where we must begin to not only start using it to the fullest extent, but we must also carefully consider the long/short term cultural impact that it will have. For example: while we all like the idea of "free music", what will that mean in the future for artists who never get paid for their work and how will they be able to continue to make music "for free"?
For Soul-Patrol this becomes most critical since not only are we a technology based entity, but we have a responsibility to BOTH artists and fans to consider what the long/short term cultural impact is going to be with respect to "great black music from the ancient to the future".
I welcome your feedback...
--Bob Davis
earthjuice@prodigy.net
Part 1 - "Shared experience" into an "individual experience" (Radio vs iPod)
Two days ago Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced that in the year 2005 Apple Computing sold 34 million iPods. That's right, I said...
THIRTY FOUR MILLION…..So what does that mean???
- Terrestrial radio is DEAD
- Satellite radio is in a is on it's way to the emergency room
And oh by the way the iTunes music store isn't going to ever be profitable either. Here is why....The average person only buys about 5 CD's each year. (or 60 tracks/year). If an iPod can hold 1000 tracks....That would leave about 940 tracks worth of "empty space" left on their iPod.
So the question becomes….HOW WILL PEOPLE FILL THAT SPACE???
Here is how I think that those, THIRTY FOUR MILLION PEOPLE, will fill that space...
- Convert their 500 favorite songs from their existing CD collection into mp3 format and load them on to their iPods
- Make copies of their friend's mp3 files to fill up the remaining space on their iPods
- Download "free" mp3 files from the internet to fill up the remaining space on their iPods
Rest assured the average person isn't going to download (and pay $0.99/track) at the iTunes Music store to fill up the "empty space" (940 tracks) on their iPod's. I don't know of ANYONE who has enough disposable income, to be able to justify spending $940.00/year buying music.
On top of that, I just read that starting in 2006, the automobile manufactures will start making cars "iPod ready". That means you will be able to plug your iPod into your car and listen to it via your car's stereo system.
That's right, listen to all of those 1,000 tracks in your car. Listen to them in any order YOU want to...anytime YOU want to.....as many times as YOU want to...(WITHOUT ANY COMMERCIALS). And with that, you might ask...
:::WHO NEEDS RADIO::: (Terrestrial or Satellite?)
THIRTY FOUR MILLION PEOPLE THAT MY FRIENDS IS A PARADIGM SHIFT
- not in 5 years
- not next year
- not next week
- RIGHT NOW
This represents a profound change not only in the music business, the overall economy , but in our entire society. Mass acceptance of the iPod, completes the transformation of music from being a....
"Shared experience" into an "individual experience".
This is probably a good thing if you own stock in Apple. It may not be a good thing for our society. For me a big part of the joy of music is that it was a "shared experience"...
Back in the day growing up in NYC, I could hear a song that Frankie Crocker played at 7:30 in the evening and know that the next morning in school that my friends had been listening at the same time. In fact, 30 years later I could still have a discussion with someone who heard that song at the same time, 30 years ago.
Going to live concerts used to also offer the chance to have a "shared musical experience" with other people. But with DVD's readily available, who ever needs to actually be bothered with leaving the house to actually attend a concert? In today's society people prefer to sit at home and watch a concert alone.
Traditional television also offers the same kind of opportunities for "shared experiences" as well. But of course those same THIRTY FOUR MILLION PEOPLE can also watch video with the iPod.
These types of "shared experiences" are part of what enables social interaction among people. In the future, the focus will shift from "shared experiences" to "individual experiences".
What will the long term effect of the advent of the "individual experience"? Will people even bother to talk with each other???
Brotha Can You Spare a Paradigm??
Stay tuned...
--Bob Davis (01/2006)
earthjuice@prodigy.net
LISTEN TO: PLANTATION RADIO STATONS
(from the 2004 Soul-Patrol Convention)
Click on the image above (or this link) to listen to this seminar, as Kevin Amos, Ric Wilson (Mandrill), Mighty Sam McClain, Darrell McNeil (BRC) take us to school on just why Black (knee-grow) Radio stations WON'T play the music we love and what WE can do to change that...
Part ) - So what does this "Paradigm Shift" mean for Black Music Fans?
1. I think that it's clear that the penetration of the iPod represents a clear demarcation point and that we are at the beginning of a big shift, that has been coming for many years.
2. Most of the people that I know aren't going to spend $1,000/year just to load files into into each one of their (or their children's) portable entertainment devices. They are going to use that money to supplement their severance pay from being laid off from their jobs as a result of outsourcing to pay their rent, buy food, buy gasoline, etc.
3. In my opinion the penetration of the iPod as a device is a temporary one. The iPod represents a transitional device that has effected a cultural shift on the way to the introduction and mass acceptance of "The Dick Tracy". The "Dick Tracy" of course is the device that will combine the functionality of the telephone, TV, radio, and other electronic devices in one portable device with a simple and easy to use interface.
4. The key here is not the device itself, but the "recommendation engines" that are going to be trusted advisors on "what" data to populate the device with. "How" the device is populated will be by whatever is the lowest cost/fastest/easiest means available.
5. The "recommendation engines" of choice will have to be FREE to the end user, or else they won't be used (that's why Satellite radio won't be it). This is where "traditional media" can still play a role if it wants to, by providing the money (advertising) to fund trustworthy "recommendation engines".
6. Nevertheless, we have clearly turned a corner. More and more people can be seen today walking around with headphones/headsets isolated in their own self programmed world of entertainment and communications, un-manipulated by any third parties. The relationship is going to be a direct one between the end user and the content. This number of people will increase over time and as it does the overall implications for our society (and the degree to which it is all regulated by the government in a post 9/11 world) is going to be quite interesting to observe and for historians to write about 100 years from now.
The implications for Black folks are of course what is of most interest to me.
Here is what usually happens to "US" when these "Paradigm Shifts" occur...
- Initially we are marginalized due to a lack of information and because the "cost of entry" is usually too high for us to participate at the beginning.
- Since we aren't usually paying attention at the beginning of the "Paradigm Shift", the "profiteers" are able to successfully STEAL our "intellectual property" for their own gain.
- Once the "price points/awareness" allow us to become participants, we are usually able to master the technology and become great creators of the content.
- Our great "content creators" will "sell out" and we will once again become "marginalized" on the business end.
Will this pattern continue?
(I don't have the answer to that one...)
NP: "Future Shock"
--Curtis Mayfield
--Bob Davis (1/2006)
earthjuice@prodigy.net
LISTEN TO: PLANTATION RADIO STATONS
(from the 2004 Soul-Patrol Convention)
Click on the image above (or this link) to listen to this seminar, as Kevin Amos, Ric Wilson (Mandrill), Mighty Sam McClain, Darrell McNeil (BRC) take us to school on just why Black (knee-grow) Radio stations WON'T play the music we love and what WE can do to change that...
Part 3 - Express Yourself and Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)
It just occurred to me that we are currently in the midst of "comebacks" by two men who inspired an entire generation of Black people to do something quite unusual....
THINK & TAKE ACTION
In my opinion their message is needed now more than ever. Both of these two songs Express Yourself and Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin) by Sly and the Family Stone and Charles Wright respectively came out at approximately the same time (1970 I think?). The timing of their respective release and subsequent popularity was absolutely perfect as a few of you might recall. You see in the year 1970, the Black community was in a state of "malaise". We were still in mourning over the death of Dr. King and pretty much "directionless".
As a few of you might recall there was a lot of internal discussion within the Black community about: WHO SHOULD REPLACE DR. KING???
There was lots of discussion. And seemingly people were sitting around waiting for some "leader/messiah" to emerge.
And in 1970 two of our then cultural thought leaders, literally "slapped Black folks upside the head" and provided the answer to the question:
Charles Wright - http://www.expressyourself.net
Sly Stone - http://www.phattadatta.com
The answer to the question is....
:::LEAD THYSELF::::
And as we all know, a whole bunch of people took that advice and took some action.
It is the actions of these people that resulted in the greatest flowering of Black culture and thought since the Harlem Renaissance era of the 1920's. This period of time doesn't really have a formal name. Sometimes it's called "the funk movement" or sometimes "the pre-disco 1970's". I have always thought that it was interesting that nobody ever gave a formal name to this period, especially given it's historical significance. The cynic within me thinks that perhaps it was never given a name because massa wanted us to forget about it?
Well I am not about to forget about that period of time. It's the same period of time that I was in both High School and college and the events of that period of time have been a primary influence in my own personal thoughts and actions ever since.
The songs Express Yourself and Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin) by Charles Wright and Sly and the Family Stone respectively are two powerful calls to action and they influenced me and a whole lot of other folks as well.
Fast forward to 2006...
The Black community is in a state of malaise. It's looking for ""leadership". The problem has reached such epidemic proportions that we are literally in check.
Frozen and unable to make a move, we have a generation gap that is so serious we stand by and watch our children being brainwashed literally back into slavery my the mass media, right before our eyes. We are in desperate need of "leadership".
And suddenly the very same two men who provided the answer 36 years ago have suddenly re-appeared.
Charles Wright - http://www.expressyourself.net
Sly Stone - http://www.phattadatta.com
Guess what?
The answer isn't going to be any different than it was the last time around.
Wouldn't it be a real "paradigm shift" if suddenly Black folks started:
- Thinking for themselves and stopped relying on the mass media to do their thinking for them?
Wouldn't it be a real "paradigm shift" if suddenly Black folks started
Thinking at all???
Wouldn't it be a real "paradigm shift" if suddenly Black folks started
- Taking action as a result of both individual and collective thinking???
(just thinking out loud...)
--Bob Davis (5/2006)
earthjuice@prodigy.net
LISTEN TO: PLANTATION RADIO STATONS
(from the 2004 Soul-Patrol Convention)
Click on the image above (or this link) to listen to this seminar, as Kevin Amos, Ric Wilson (Mandrill), Mighty Sam McClain, Darrell McNeil (BRC) take us to school on just why Black (knee-grow) Radio stations WON'T play the music we love and what WE can do to change that...
Part 4 - When is it Good Enough, to Just to Be, Good Enough?
When is it Good Enough, to Just to Be, Good Enough?
Quoting myself from a recent album review....
"But I am willing to say that we need more artists like Don Byron in Black music, who are willing to challenge "the best of the best". We are currently lacking in artists who have the guts to attempt to do this (hence we have come to accept things like "smooth jazz", "gangsta rap", etc. as being "normal", when in fact they are an insult to our intelligence and demeaning to our culture)."
As I go about the business of doing what I do here, this topic has become one of overwhelming importance as we take a critical look at our music/culture. There is much conversation both on and offline about the current state of the music industry. The digitization, portability and availability of music has created both problems and opportunities for both artists and music fans alike.
Some people say that the digitization, portability and availability of culture is the solution to our problems. However technology is only an enabler, technology doesn't provide any solutions in and of itself. To get to solutions, first the problem itself must be understood.
Have you ever been in a bar at 2am? Have you ever noticed that it really is true that the women in the bar really do look better at 2am, than they did at midnight and they looked better at midnight than they did at 10pm? Some men might think that the issue here is about the "quantity of good looking women", when in fact the problem might be better expressed as "what is the likelihood of you being able to attract a good looking woman?".
So now we have portable devices that are capable of storing thousands of songs, videos, movies, books, etc. Some people think that the question becomes: "how fast can I fill it up?", when in fact the real question is: "what do I put into it, when there is so little of value that is actually worth storing?".
Sometimes technology enables "bad behavior". Everything isn't worth storing, because there is little value in it's retrieval. Much of what we choose to store isn't worth retrieving. However simply because storage has become both "cheap and portable", we simply choose to "store everything" because we don't have the time to figure out that which is truly worth preserving for fast retrieval at a later date. In effect the technology enables us to delay making descions about the quality of items because we have been trained to think that the storage capacity for those items is unlimited.
My view is that we have to reject the temptation to do this, because by doing so we encourage and enable "mediocrity" in our culture.
I have heard some people say that they dislike music in a digital form and only want their music in a physical form (CD's, LP's, etc.), because they need to "feel/touch the music". What they are really saying is that because they know that their capacity to physically store the music is limited, they want to store and retrieve only the music that "touches them enough to want to touch it back". As such these people are willing to admit that for them music helps to fulfill a powerful emotional need.
I have heard other people say that they prefer music in a digital form and have no need to physically "touch the music". These people are generally younger, and have no concept of "storage limitations", therefore they are willing to store music that "doesn't touch them" and they certainly don't care to "touch the music back".
Of course we have seen a big impact on higher levels of personal involvement (ex: concert attendance)in music in sharp decline as well. For example we now have situations where artists who sell hundreds of thousands of "units" can only draw a few hundred people to watch them perform the same songs live. Interestingly enough we also see the reverse as being commonplace, where artists who haven't had new music played on the radio in decades drawing thousands and sometimes tens of thousands of people to their shows. Although this may appear to "backwards", it really begins to make sense when viewed thru the emerging paradigm:
- People who want to be "touched by music", want to experience it live and therefore make a larger commitment to the music that "touches them". And want to "touch it back" in person.
- People who don't care if the music "touches them" and just want to accumulate music aren't willing to commit to going to experience the music in person.
That means there are far more people who are willing to pay to see an artist like Barbara Streisand perform live than there are who are willing to go and see an artist like the Black Eyed peas perform live, even though the Black Eyed Peas are currently selling many hundreds of thousands of "units" than Barbara Streisand.
Right now we are at a moment in time where some people have framed the question as something along the lines of "digital vs. physical" storage and retrieval of culture.
- "Storage capacity of culture" is a technological issue.
- "Deciding what culture should be stored" is an issue of the human spirit.
For a while, these two means of storage will continue to co-exist, but eventually digital storage will win out simply because it is cheaper. Because the relative cost of the storage is cheap, that will also cause the price of the item to be reduced accordingly. And we have already see this happen. For example there is a Russian download site where MP3 files may be purchased for $0.10 per file, enabling you to buy an album of 12 songs for a price of $1.20. However there is a downside to this. Because of it's low price, people who prefer "digital storage" because won't have to make decisions about the quality of the culture. That causes "mediocrity" to become acceptable/popular and for "excellence" to become unseen/rare. In the past "excellence" has always been rare, however it was always seen. This represents a major societal "paradigm shift" and it's ramifications are unclear.
The flip side to this is that technology also enables the people to create more music and to create it faster. In today's world it is easy for anyone to suddenly wake up in the morning, turn their computer on, plug in their guitar or keyboard into the computer, turn on the microphone and create digital music files. Once the file has been created it can be quickly edited with cheap software tools and then posted on a website/emailed ("distributed") to thousands of people or more that very same morning. That person is now in the music business because the cost of entry to create the product is low and the cost of product distribution/delivery is even cheaper.
For people who have already made the descion that they don't care if music "touches them", they download it and they "store" it. That music file created and distributed in just a few hours can potentially be stored in the portable music devices of many people in a matter of hours. By lunchtime I can have a "hit record", playing in thousands of iPod's around the world. A transaction has taken place, but no money has changed hands (but that's a topic for a different essay....lol). However it does bring into serious question as to just what the definition of the term "artist" is going to be in the future.
A culture that decides that "Being just good enough" is acceptable, is a culture that is suspect at best. It's no different than the bar patron who decides at 2am to make his selection based on criteria that would have been unacceptable a few hours earlier.
Both are headed for trouble and are likely to be disappointed in themselves the next morning...
--Bob Davis (5/2006)
earthjuice@prodigy.net
LISTEN TO: PLANTATION RADIO STATONS
(from the 2004 Soul-Patrol Convention)
Click on the image above (or this link) to listen to this seminar, as Kevin Amos, Ric Wilson (Mandrill), Mighty Sam McClain, Darrell McNeil (BRC) take us to school on just why Black (knee-grow) Radio stations WON'T play the music we love and what WE can do to change that...
If you have a news item, update, review, commentary, etc that you would like to submit to the Soul-Patrol Newsletter, please send them via email for consideration to:
Hopefully you enjoyed this edition of the Soul-Patrol Newsletter.
We will be back soon with the next edition, with email alerts for local events, Soul-Patrol website updates/chat sessions or breaking news in between, as required.
If you have any comments, questions, etc feel free to drop me an email and let me know what's on your mind.
Bob Davis
earthjuice@prodigy.net Soul-Patrol Email Blast/Sponsorship
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If you or your organization is has a need to reach Soul-Patrol Newsletter readers (Soul, Funk, Jazz, Blues, Rock n Roll fans) on a worldwide basis, then you may be interested in talking with us about doing a targeted email blast. They are inexpensive and highly effective for announcing a new CD, concerts, website launches, new products, new or existing businesses, etc.
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Contact us for the current rate schedules via
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Bob Davis - Soul-Patrol
798 Woodlane Rd
Suite 10264
Mount Holly, NJ 08060
609-351-0154
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