Amon Tobin, the music industry and the web
Posted in Interactive, Music, Websites by Armando Alves on March 13, 2007Last week, the brazillian composer Amon Tobin released Foley Room, and complains about the leaked pirated copies on its logbook:
all I can comment on with any certainty is how all this has affected me personally and in light of my nearing release this might be of interest to those of you who’ve expressed an interest in my music.
(…)
it’s unlikely that you will be able to order a copy even from online stores … the predicted sales of the record were so low that it didn’t justify the manufacture or distribution to any significant level.
(…)
you can draw your own conclusions as to what this means with regards to my own future output. again I stress that I’m not talking about what should happen here.
He’s making very clear one of the most compelling arguments against piracy: if you don’t bother to buy music, these talented artists (specially on cutting edge areas) will have no incentive to go on.
On another subject, Amon Tobin has also a new website, a journey through a underwater space, with deep sounds and a ambient inspired by H.R. Geiger or “The Abyss”.
It makes a lot more sense after you see the album trailers, with the sound experiments building the foundation for his new album. As a fan of Steve Reich, i’m anxious to listen (and buy) this new album, that is believed to be one of the best works from Amon Tobin.
URL: http://www.amontobin.com/field/
Interactive Agency: Freeset (the company who also made Human Locator)
Os músicos vivem dos concertos e não da música
Screw the Music Industry. If they think Tobin’s music will not sell enough for them to make a huge profit out of Tobin’s talent, then he should be less ass-backwards as release the music directly on the net.
I suggest eMusic where I’m willing to bet he’d make more money than at his recording industry pimps.
Then again… it’s not very bright to have a web-site that prevents all those non-flash’ed browsers to get any content at all, so I guess I now know how he got fooled by the music industry…
Just to put things in perspective:
1) Tobin has gone through some great efforts and very expensive production costs, that largely surpass what he might earn with this album. And the kind of sound he does is not easily reprducable in concerts
2) He already releases music as streaming content - you can always listen to that.
3) Actually the Flash plugin penetration is way beyond 90% of the browser market. And besides Processing (and you still need to have Java installed), there is no open multimedia format that is capable of achieving such interactive experience.
Can you please provide a link to those statements?
Facts & figures:
1) regarding the cost, i’m quoting Tobin - see his logbook, and if you’re at it, check the album trailers, and take note of what kind of sound experiments he does. Check with a sound expert (as i did) and he would surely tell you that those kind of experiments are very hard to achieve in a regular concert.
2) Regarding sound samples, again, check his website
3) See Flash Player penetration
That’s rich.
1. Tobin’s evidently fooled on the logistics
2. What web-site? There’s some ridiculous flash thingie…
3. Oh yeah, Foo’s penetration from the mouth of Foo’s maker. Reliable indeed.
While i honestly support the efforts of crowdsourcing, mashups, CC et al i also find it disappointing that those who push the boundaries in art/music/science eventually loose that bold attitude just because some unscrupulous people released the work way before the publication date.
I’m not “that” sorry for Tobin, that got his big share of bucks on the previous release for Ninja Tunes.
It’s just that i imagine i would pissed off if someone did that to a innovative work of mine.
Regarding the Flash metrics, although published by Adobe they are conducted by 2 independent companies through worldwide surveys.
[...] Lição de moral a tirar daqui: se não te dás ao trabalho de comprar música, os artistas talentosos (especialmente os que desenvolvem trabalhos de vanguarda) não terão incentivos para continuar a criar. Eu compreendo o Tobin, a sério. Admiro a qualidade do seu trabalho. Ele queria fazer uma “obra-prima total” que não se limitasse a ser apenas mais uma pasta ZIP de ficheiros MP3 entre milhares de outras. Para isso, ele e a editora dele, a Ninja Tunes, desenvolveram um site magnificente e faustoso no sentido de deslumbrar os seus exigentes fãs, recriando um ambiente subaquático de imersão total. Uma experiência “interactiva” que faz lembrar aquelas megalomanias muito comuns em 2000, que partiam do princÃpio que toda a gente usava Flash e tinha computadores super-artilhados. O que Tobin se esqueceu é que nós não precisamos de toda essa parafenália para apreciarmos a sua experiência estética. Basta-nos a sua música. O próprio processo de produção do disco também implicou custos muito elevados, com experiências sonoras que muito dificilmente podem ser reproduzidas em concertos ao vivo. Para juntar ao pacote, concebeu também um documentário em DVD explicando em pormenor o processo de gravação do disco. [...]
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