The most interesting question from the Audible Hype Survey was the simplest: Do you think you can make a living off music in 2009?. I’m going to pose it again here because I want to get the largest data set I can—we’re going for 4 figures this time. This is a question at the core of everything Audible Hype is about, and something that cuts across all genres.
Since Audible Hype had 333 RSS subscribers when I started the 2009 Survey, our benchmark was 33 responses, or a 10% rate. We got twice what we expected, so thank you for that. All praise due to Ganeshe. I promised I’d share the results, and this is that: for the curious and for the data nerds, let’s dig through the digits...for the casual reader, this is something you can skip.
This is a short, simple survey about what you think is working, and what could be improved. I want Audible Hype to be useful to you. The results will be shared with everyone in an upcoming post about survey design and collection.
I have awesome news: we’ve finally launched the World Around Records website. This is a quick rundown of the features and goals, plus three questions I’ve got about the site. Your answers are hugely and greatly appreciated.
This is an expansion on the first article in the series, Year of the Glut—which painted a depressing picture and probably moved too fast. Here, I’m staying strictly focused on numbers, trends and facts. The discussion here is based around a recent NPD Group report claiming that iTunes represents a full 25% of the entire music business...obviously, that’s a claim I’m going to be questioning. Can we find numbers we can trust in 2009? Dig in…
To finish off the summer season, we’re going to geek the fuck out here at Audible Hype. This site is going to take a long, detailed look at the largest and longest group project I’ve ever done: World Around Records. Welcome to 30 days of “more content per square inch.”
By the way, this post is more than an announcement, it’s also a disorganized goldmine of dope links and good articles and it goes a little something like...
“It’s been a long time—and I’m glad that I left you
I’ve been snacking on fresh fruit and practicing chess moves”
It’s been a couple months but I’m back. I appreciate the concerned emails, and the project is starting again. I stopped writing Audible Hype because I was bored with the topic—I moved on to more interesting things, like studying 5th generation warfare over at Skilluminati Research.
Why did I get bored? Why am I re-starting the project now? I have three basic reasons.
I’ve been reading a lot of misconceptions lately, but that’s nothing new. Most of what passes for “music journalism” is just re-phrasing press releases, after all. So the recent trend of articles about the environmental impact of the music business is something I feel obligated to speak on. Honestly, I think it’s just fluff—an easy story to write about that contributes nothing worthwhile. Worst of all, it’s a distraction from ongoing sources of real pollution, poison and devastation.
Today I’m going to use a recent column from Exclaim! to examine the reality behind the rhetoric about “greening” the industry. We’ll be covering everything from China to London to Los Angeles, and back to your local landfill.
When I first met Witness, we had both showed up at a gig we’d planned 2 months in advance. We had arrived to find out there was still no sound system for venue. There had been no promotion, and the venue had submitted the wrong lineup and mispelled his name in both local papers. It was probably the worst-managed, most-pathetic Music Biz Moment I saw in 2007. Witness was completely unfazed and very kind about the whole thing. It turned out his attitude worked: we wound up finding a sound system, an audience, and an actual venue all during the next 2 hours. Witness and Unsung went on to deliver killer sets in front of a tough audience. The toughest, really: the “I’m just here for pizza why are you rapping at me” demographic, notoriously hard to please. Witness pleases everyone. He graciously answered some nosy questions from Audible Hype:
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My name is Justin Boland and I work for World Around Records. I rap, produce, promote and prosper under pressure. I'm broker than I look, smarter than I talk and closer than I appear.