Update 070307: I have reconsidered my involvement in BRTC. Look for an in-depth pre-analysis to be published on this site in the coming days.
Christopher Penn of the Financial Aid Podcast is leading an initiative that may turn the entire music industry on its head. It’s called Bum Rush the Charts, and Chris summarizes it this way:
“…on March 22nd, the podcasting community is going to take an indie podsafe music artist to number one on the iTunes singles charts as a demonstration of our reach to Main Street and our purchasing power to Wall Street. The track we’ve chosen is “Mine Again” by the band Black Lab. A band, mind you, that was not just dropped from not just one, but two major record labels (Geffen and Sony/Epic) and in the process forced them to fight to get their own music back. We picked them because making them number one, even for just one day, will remind the RIAA record labels of what they turned their backs on – and who they ignore at their peril.”
I’ll be making my statement on March 22!
Mark, please say it ain’t so. The only thing this experiment will prove is that the record companies are right, that the only way to be a star in the music industry is to have artificial hype created. Some of the buzz words that people like to use in podcasting are “keep it real” and “authentic”. But bum rush the chart is neither and I really belief this is going to do way more harm than good. I chose to buy black labs latest album this weekend.
Comment by daryl cognito — March 6, 2007 @ 12:04 am
Daryl:
You raise an amazingly compelling point.
I signed on to BrtC because I recognize the potential to send a message to the music industry that the community can make its own choices, and support and promote artists that we discover on our own. We don’t need the industry to dictate our own likes and dislikes. The money that is spent to sign and direct artists could be better spent to help develop and tour those same artists and the record industry hasn’t yet warmed up to that idea.
BrtC is the first effort that I am aware of that is endeavouring to deliver a message to the music industry, on a large scale and in metrics that the industry follows and understand – at the expense of authentic voice and by artificially saturating the head (see The Long Tail).
I’ll be thinking long and hard about your comment. Thanks for posting it.
Mark
Comment by Mark — March 6, 2007 @ 7:40 am
Glad to get you thinking Mark. I did not mean to come across as negative, but I really do belief that we need to careful as we move forward. Bashing traditional media one minute then copying it the next.
Comment by daryl cognito — March 6, 2007 @ 10:22 pm
Whoops, sorry for the spelling mistakes.
Comment by daryl cognito — March 6, 2007 @ 10:23 pm
Although, I’ll be curious to see the results of BRTC, I feel a bit like Daryl — The podsafe music “movement” has me rather nonplussed.
Take the Daily Source Code playlist, and that’s what it is, a playlist, make no mistake. Eighty-five percent of the podsafe music Adam Curry plays is absolute drivel. What’s worse than “industry” music? … Wanna-be industry music. Most podsafe music is the wrong kind of alternative — It’s only striving for an economic alternative, not an artistic alternative.
Comment by maurizio — March 7, 2007 @ 12:35 am
maurizio,
And don’t forget, the podsafe music Curry plays he makes money on. His show sells advertising, the artist gets NOTHING for that COMMERCIAL use of his material. Great setup if you can con people into it…
Comment by Bob Goyetche — March 8, 2007 @ 3:33 pm