Rant: Sony! Get your head out of your ass!

You too, Victory Records!

Over the weekend I bought tickets to see Envy On The Coast (who are awesome, by the way) in Anaheim next month. Whenever I buy concert tickets, I automatically start looking for music by the other artists playing. I can’t help it, it’s a Pavlovian response. I enjoy shows much more when I’m already familiar with the artists, so I check into any opening acts (and in this case, headliners) that I’m not familiar with.

I’ve run into a problem, though. The headliners on this tour (and one of the few bands playing that have a current release), The Audition, are on Victory Records, and Victory is distributed by Sony BMG’s RED division, and Sony BMG still has its head up its ass regarding digital distribution. Right now, the only way to buy the music I’m looking for online is through iTunes.

I have two problems with iTunes. First, I won’t pay for a DRMed product when alternatives exist. Three of the four major labels (Sony being the only hold out) are now distributed on Amazon MP3 without DRM. EMI, Universial, and most recently Warner have seen the writing on the wall and shifted their sales focus away from physical media. Indie labels have been selling music online without DRM for years. So I won’t pay for broken music.

Before anyone starts up with the piracy argument, let me tell you what my problem is. I work for a major corporation and would like to be able to play my music at work. But because I work for a large non-tech company, administrator privledges on company computers are locked down and controlled via our IT staff at headquarters, who aren’t even in the same state I am. Now, here’s the problem: to play protected iTunes music on a computer, you need to install iTunes, connect to the internet, and sign in. I can’t do any of those things. I could, if I were so inclined, strip the DRM from the iTunes tracks, but in the process I would lose sound quality (and break the DMCA, but that’s a secondary concern), and any audiophile will tell you that iTunes standard AAC is already crappy enough without burning and ripping back.

In fact, sound quality is the second reason I refuse to buy from iTunes. AAC encoding is certainly better than the equivalent bit rate MP3, but standard iTunes tracks are encoded at a crappy level. I have far from perfect hearing, but even I can hear the difference between iTunes and iTunes Plus. The encoding at my two favorite download sites, Amazon MP3 and eMusic is of higher quality than the stuff you get from iTunes.

There seems to be an ideological problem here as well. Tony Brummel, the founder of Victory Records, has criticized iTunes (and by extension, all music download services) because a download service “makes music disposable. It makes it a faceless impulse item. It steals its soul,” by allowing consumers to pick individual tracks to download. He also notes that this ability negatively impacts artist revenue. (Macworld, 2006-02-16)

This argument is full of holes. First, some sales revenue is better than no revenue at all. I rarely buy physical media because I don’t want to store it. A huge portion of the price of a CD is wrapped up in marketing and distribution costs, which I can avoid by buying a digital copy. It scratches and it’s inconvienent. The only exception I make to this is if I pick up an album at a show, where it’s usually less expensive than in a retail store. Besides, the CD is dying. Sony BMG and Victory are still hugely invested in a format whose sales declined 20% this holiday season, while total holiday spending was up 19%.

Even if I only buy a single track off an album via download, that still equates to money I wouldn’t otherwise have spent. Besides, only a tiny fraction of revenue generated from physical media goes to the artist. According to a fantastic article at Wired.com by David Byrne of the Talking Heads, in a typical deal, only 10% of the price of the CD goes to the artist. That’s about $1.60 per CD. To make matters worse, the artist’s cut is even less on iTunes, the only digital distributor that handles Victory Records.

Second, a model exists for album only digital sales. Talk to CDBaby, Mr. Brummel. CDBaby sells only full albums for download and has a variable pricing model, all the things the record labels have been screaming about for years. They currently only handle independent music, but the model exists and works. CDBaby has been in business for 10 years. That’s a lot of independent music sales.

Third, Mr. Brummel’s statement implies that the soul of music is its plastic packaging. The compact disc is the method you use to experience music, it’s not the music itself. Music bought via a download service is no more soulless than music bought on a disc. As the wonderful David Byrne says in his article, “Calling [a CD] music is like selling a shopping cart and calling it groceries.” The medium has nothing to do with the music.

What all this boils down to is, I won’t be buying music from The Audition or Breathe Carolina before the show. Which means I won’t enjoy myself quite as much. Which means I’m less likely to get all caught up in it and buy a t-shirt or poster that I’m probably too old for anyway. Sorry guys. That’s just how it is. I have too many alternatives (read: other bands, upwards of 75% of the market) to waste money on a song in a format that’s broken. Maybe I’ll pick up your album at the show. In the meantime, I have new music from Emery, Aiden, My American Heart, Pierce the Veil, Mayday Parade, and Madina Lake to get me through.

Dec. 29, 2007: The Higher @ Chain Reaction, Anaheim

This was my first time back at Chain Reaction in years, and let me tell you, some things never change. I’ve posted a venue review here.

The night started with an impressive set by Halos, a local act out of Orange County. Musically, they struck me as similar to John Ralston. Halos’ sound features the same indie-rific themes and impeccable delivery. There was a lot to like about this set. They had the most mature material of all the acts at this show and their the song writing is complex without being inaccessible. The act was surprisingly polished on stage, but the best thing about the performance was the lead singer’s habit of launching songs a capella. This gave the band a chance to showcase Dan’s notable vocal ability which the audience might otherwise have missed (Chain Reaction’s sound is a bit bass-heavy and the sound tends to wash out vocals and piano). The set featured songs not available on their EP, which hopefully means we’ll be hearing more from these guys soon.

Next up was There For Tomorrow, a band out of Orlando playing a brand of high-energy melodic rock that you’ll be familiar with if you’ve listened to the radio at all in the last five years. Their music is well constructed and delivered with respectable ability. What is going to launch this group out of the slew of other bands with a similar sound is their charisma on stage. From the other side of the country, with only a 9 month old EP out, they still had a surprising number of fans in the audience and wrung every ounce of energy they could out of the crowd. The only flat note in this set was the ill-advised cover of Jimmy Eat World’s “Sweetness”, which was not as tightly delivered or commanding as their own material and not as familiar to the audience as they might have hoped. Given how young the crowd was, a seven year old song may have been a bit of a stretch.

There For Tomorrow was followed by local band Lorene Drive who were a bit off their game. I’m not sure what the problem was, but this set was no where near as good as their set at HOB just last week. They opened with a game show style introduction of the band members which would have played better if they hadn’t all been on stage setting up their own equipment just seconds before. It was good to see them play for a home crowd, though, and the audience didn’t seem to mind that the set wasn’t quite up to par.

Next up was The Higher, who were obviously preaching to the converted. The first time I saw these guys play was over the summer at the University of Redlands, for a crowd that couldn’t even be persuaded to move for headlining Jimmy Eat World let alone some Las Vegas act they’d never heard of. The enthusiasm at this show more than made up for the summer, though, and the band was in their element.

The Higher are chatty on stage, I mean Chris Carrabba chatty, and I didn’t think anyone talked more than that guy on stage. It’s fun, though, because they’re plainly enjoying themselves and riff off one another with a comfortable familiarity. We were treated to discussions of the band’s favorite foods (mashed potatoes), their respective weights, and at one point it looked like the guitarists had some sort of prank planned for Seth, but Tom nixed it at the last minute. (If anyone out there knows what “the song you know” is that Tom was supposed to start, I’d love to hear it.)

Musically, The Higher are on the pop end of the rock spectrum. Their music is driven by lead singer Seth’s vocals which, appropriately, are a good bit higher than the norm for the genre. Their delivery on stage is flawless, when Seth remembers which verse he’s on – but since he called himself on the mistake, I’ll forgive him. The set hit all their strongest songs, including the very meta Pace Yourself, which is a favorite of mine.

The band seems to have a strange Justin Timberlake fixation that I could do without. Over the summer they covered Timberlake’s “What Goes Around” and at this show they covered *NSync’s “Bye Bye Bye”. I have to say, they did a pretty good job of it – for about half a second I forgot how much I hate that song. They closed with an extended version of Pace Yourself that featured only Seth, Tom, and Reggie for the first half.

What I’m Listening To: Foolproof, Everybody Dance

• Listen at: www.myspace.com/foolproof
• Available on: eMusic, Amazon MP3, iTunes

Based in Orange County, Foolproof put out one album before imploding. I usually don’t bother writing up acts that aren’t currently active, but this album has been in heavy rotation on all my playlists since I discovered it a couple months ago. The album, Everybody Dance is aptly named – most of the songs are extremely danceable. The music is along the lines of The All American Rejects, but it has shades of techno/electronic influences on a couple songs that sound like Brandtson’s Hello, Control. The songwriting is stellar, except for “Can’t Stop Diggin’”, which seems to be the band’s token embarrassing-emo-junior-high-slow-dance number. (Since I’m a geek, the song sounds to me like someone with an obsession with Digg.com. It’s bad form to digg your own stuff, guys.) They make up for it with “Fall From the Sky”, easily the strongest song on the album and one that gets stuck in my head every time I hear it.

random cool thing: Amazon MP3 signs distribution deal with Warner Music

via Ars Technica:

This story was everywhere today, but I thought I’d jump on the bandwagon Amazon.com and Warner Music announced today that Amazon’s DRM-free MP3 store will begin selling Warner Music’s entire catalog. That makes Sony the lone hold-out of the 4 majors to adhere to a DRM-only policy.

Increasingly it makes sense to check Amazon.com before shopping iTunes for music. iTunes DRM isn’t particularly restrictive, but why deal with it when you don’t have to? Plus, Amazon’s internet-based store is a bit more convenient than launching iTunes, especially if you’re just browsing.

Warner’s music looks like it’s already live on Amazon, at least, the quick search I did for a couple artists on the Reprise label found what I was looking for. Warner Music also controls the Atlantic and Maveric labels.

upcoming show: The Higher @ Chain Reaction, Anaheim

On Saturday, The Higher will play Chain Reaction in Anaheim. I’ve seen these guys before, opening for Jimmy Eat World at the University of Redlands this summer. The band is from Las Vegas, and their music is a bit further into the pop end of the spectrum than my taste tends to run, but it’s damn catchy and makes for a good live show. My favorite local band, Lorene Drive, is also playing this show. Look for a write-up sometime next week. I’ll also be posting a new venue review; this will be my first time back at Chain Reaction in years.

[Show review.]