Mike - welcome to the blog! And look at you, already linking in web articles on your first post. That took Stuart and me seven years to learn.


Good articles on rev share and technology, and the shape shifting that's going on in the industry. Personally I think it's nonsense to think that the role of the music critic is on the wane; if anything, (to your point Kyle) with the dispersion of music that's happened with the veritable collapse and therefore influence of the traditional recording industry, and the availability of technology to record and distribute music, there is an enhanced role for someone to navigate you through all of the (inevitable) dreck. Let's not confuse the ability to post an opinion on the web with a compelling discussion of music's merits. If there is no value, then why the rise in popularity of Pitchfork. And let's face it, in the end the economics for this sort of endeavour justify themselves or they don't.

And in a way, this leads to my next point....it's interesting that we're all talking in negatives (ie what didn't happen this decade, what we don't see trend wise), as if that is a good thing. Playing the devil's advocate for the moment, where is the momentum to change music, move it forward, find the next great thing? And while I am as small a fan of traditional record company oligopolies as anybody you know, is there a case to be made that their tight-fisted control of the role of hitmaker helped pop music? They had programs to "develop" artists, push them for bigger and greater (mostly measured in sales, I grant you), and there was a holy grail (mostly measured in dollars) that successful artists could strive for. Many of these things are changing and will continue to change in the new world.

Keeping in mind that pop music is, in my view, a pretty ephemeral (read:minor) genre in any big scheme discussion of music (though we love it dearly), the question is, where are we headed? Is the impact of the collapsing music company infrastructure still playing out, and will it lead to better music, more excitement, through access on all fronts (to create, distribute, sample, buy), or will a "random" factor dominate and render the whole thing listless. I hear an element of this comment in all of your synopses of the decade so far, and crystal balls into the future.

This ties into the point about albums versus singles. Albums as an art form have only really existed since the fifties (and early on, serious albums were really only made in jazz music) and who's to say that it is a more exalted form of pop music? Surely with the breaking up of record labels there's an opportunity to re-consider the standard tried-and-ture packaging of songs as well? The next generation likely won't care as much, I can tell you that.

I'll lob this one out and write a bit more later.