Thoughts about the music business

[Luoto]

Australian metal band Ne Obliviscaris provide insight on world tour expenses on their newly launched Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/neobliviscaris

Interesting project that only has a chance of working out if you're not a greedy bastard. Which none of the people in NeO are.

 

[tuonelan]

So has anyone here bought one of those limited edition cassette tape releases out of a sense of nostalgia or romance for the old days of the underground scene?

Vinyl makes sense. Not sure about cassettes.

 

[xptrinity]

So has anyone here bought one of those limited edition cassette tape releases out of a sense of nostalgia or romance for the old days of the underground scene?

Vinyl makes sense. Not sure about cassettes.

I still have my cassette collection somewhere in the attic. I even still have a cassette player. But I am not buying new cassettes. It's a hipster thing now

 

[tuonelan]

I still have my cassette collection somewhere in the attic. I even still have a cassette player. But I am not buying new cassettes. It's a hipster thing now

I've been wondering how many of the hipsters who are doing this even remember Napster, let alone having to buy a crappy magazine and send a money order by post to buy music you had never heard, and then wait two months to see if you had been ripped off or if they'd actually send your music.

None of my tapes from back in the day were in any shape to be saved. They were all either worn out or they were shit music I did not listen to. Same with my tape deck. The motor wore out and the head was not in great shape either.

Of course if the industry has its way none of us will ever own a recording of any new music. It'll all be subscription streaming.

 

[papajohnny]

http://decibelmagazine.com/blog/2016/5/17/kriegs-neill-jameson-on-the-trappings-of-ego


Great article. It is mostly concerned with Agalloch's break-up, but the overall message can be applied to myriad of bands.

 

[tuonelan]

Yeah, the article summed up a lot of what I was thinking. I've been a bit worried about Agalloch ever since they started getting critical acclaim on NPR. Haughm seemed to be more and more interested in high concept. Sad, because I've always appreciated the more nature oriented Agalloch than any of his philosophical projects.

Commenters mentioned Opeth as a parallel, but I don't see Âkerfeldt as having the same sort of hubris. Âkerfeldt clearly is the driving creative force, but he's much more interested in being part of a band and his hiring/firing decisions always seem to revolve around collaboration and commitment more than ego. Likewise, I thought of Sólstafir, but there it was a matter of one point of friction and not Adi firing everyone else.

I'm hoping I don't see Haughm bringing out any Agalloch releases with all new bandmates. That would do a disservice to the rest of the band.

 

[Eurynome]

Sólstafir's Saga is taking another turn for the worse. Gummi is suing for control and trying to have Aðalbjörn removed, which is the equivalent of trying to destroy the band. At this point I just want a judge to order a settlement, pay off Gummi, and close the whole matter so the band can move on.

Small update: the court in Reykjavík dismissed Gummi's case yesterday and ordered Svalbard Music Group to pay Addi's legal costs, which correspond to a bit less than 2900 euros. Neither party has commented the outcome on Facebook, which hopefully means that this is indeed the last thing we've heard about the matter and everyone's gone back to concentrating on their respective music. (Apart from following presidential elections and Euro championships, I mean.)

Update 11.6.: OK, so Gummi is taking the matter to the High Court, at least he just said so on FB. I understand his dissatisfaction with the district court's ruling (the dismissal was based on rather disputable formal grounds), but I still would have preferred a quick ending to this soap opera.

 

[tuonelan]

Opeth has left Roadrunner for Nuclear Blast. The Roadrunner stable is looking a bit threadbare these days. They have Dream Theater, Gojira and Slipknot as their marquee acts, with Killswitch Engage, Kvelertak and Trivium to keep things respectable.

Not much to write home about.

 

[papajohnny]

Weird. I thought they signed with NB ages ago.

 

[tuonelan]

Nope. And Paradise Lost just switched to NB from Century Media (though CM still looks strong). Would love this to increase the likelihood of Opeth and Amorphis touring North America together.

 

[papajohnny]

More details on the Agalloch break-up.

http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/rock/7409036/agalloch-breakup-why-john-haughm-don-anderson

Good interviews. Nice to see both sides of the argument, and news of Don, Jason and Aesop going on to form a new band is great.