Has all this technology changed for the better?

[SlavikSvensk]

@Slavik - what evidence have you got for that statement? I dont think thats the case AT ALL.

@Dirty Bass - Yes, people dont like meddling with the format, but why is that? Because there has been this attitude for so long "Get with the program or you wont get released" make some music that sounds like "this" or "this" and you might get a release. Mainly this was ever thus, journo's, reviewers and DJs like things in easily digestible format as it makes their life easier.

In particuar DJ's like playing a genre as they can learn to manipuate it and it makes playing the records easier to accomplish with some success.

But we have gone beyond that now. Or rather we are moving beyond that... there is now the opporunity to create on the fly and remix on the fly and THAT is the future for DJing. Not to say that all the old skills get abandoned, far from it. Its time DJ's learnt to add skills to their arsenal and get rid, once and for all of the "DJ's are not musicians" bullshit which has hung around them like a bad smell for far too long. (scuse the rhetoric :) )

The digital music market is still young and in terms of global market share this is what the IFPI had to say about 2004.



The BPI had this to say





Dave the D was right, you cant mask good or bad writing. But then what on earth makes anyone think that digital releases will mask good writing? Did everyone suddenly all turn deaf? You know good music when you hear it - and like i said in answer to dave, the opporunities have increased TEN fold, dont be afraid of the rubbbish that will come out, because the opporunities which led to the pile of musical nonsense coming out will lead to WAY more roses growing in the pile of crap.

All this negativity is being directed towards the situation people believe themselves to be in - one in which they wont earn money from music.

Why?

Is it that we believe technology will make the ability to write music availble to everyone then everyone will write good music? or that they will be swamped by tracks? The music writing process is a long one, there are no shortcuts to it. What people are really afraid of, wether they know it or not is the gobalisation of the world music market. We will start to see music coming out or countries that were never part of what we have now. I firmly believe techno wil change, it always has done and always will do.

I was saying to a friend last night that i personally find it utterly ridiculous that the most negativity i have seen towards technology in music in recent weeks has come from people i know on this forum.... techno heads no less. whats going on? why are we refusing to accept the change? it goes against everything we stand for.

Sure digital labels have a responsibility to release good music, but they will also (like it or not) release within niche genres' because now they can - this is a good thing, this is where new music comes from. innovation, creation and opporunity. If we dont embrace this we will get left behind. simple as.

don't think you quite got my point, dude. as i said earlier, and i think dirtybass would agree, the problem with techno today has f*ck-all to do with technology. technology SHOULD create new oppportunities. but, in the end, opportunities are taken by people. techno, to me, has a people problem right now, and has had for years. not enough new people listening to the music, too many overspecialized producer, dj and label people. both supply and demand, as i see it based on years of listening to techno, show less and less stress on originality and song-ness and more and more on categorizability and track-ness. so techno, IMO, has a writing, releasing and performing problem. it would have this problem regardless of ableton or mp3s.

as for new technology, of course we should embrace it. but we should do so to bring on more quality, daring music. stuff that sounds different, memorable rather than safe.

*EDIT* i'm talking very generally ^^ and don't want to be categorical. i should add that there are indeed GREAT, original producers, labels, djs etc still out there. just not as many as i'd like and, IMO, not as high a percentage as there were...