Update: My friend managed to recover her bike with the help of the police after seeing it for sale online.
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A friend of mine had her bike stolen in Essex today. :( I'm posting this in case I might be able to use the power of Twitter to get it back.
Below is her description of the bike and a photo:
"If you see this bike in the Essex area....car boot sales, ebay, gumtree...anywhere, then please contact me!! It's quite unique as it has a red 'lady saddle' written on it, which on it's own was quite expensive!! Also LED lights front and back not pictured here."
If you should see it anywhere. Please contact me via my blog, or email: blog@michaeleast.me.uk and I'll pass the message on.
Update: I've managed to find out a few more details about the bike: It's a Giant FCR2 purchased Jan 2008 Frame serial number GX7 G1878.
This was hard, all the tracks are great, but after listening many times to each. Here are my favourites in order.
No.1 - Sinner. LOVE IT. It has an epic sound about it, I can almost visualise this being used by the BBC during montages of special events in a Elbow "One Day Like This" style.
No.2 - Tied our laces
I like this A LOT, it's quite funky, I like the bass line, I'm wondering how it would sound with a Whirly replacing the piano.
No.3 - I Say Yeah
Love the lyrics of this one, and I love the strings, I'd like to hear more of them! :)
Glass sound after "I raise my glass" is a clever touch.
No.4
Slamming Doors
I like it a lot, already has very polished feel to it.
Like the Mellotron-esque intro sound :)
Reminds me a little of some of the songs on Diana Vickers's album. Please don't take that the wrong way, I mean that as a complement. :)
Very pop-friendly.
No.5
Wide Open Book
Very polished and pop-friendly song.
I like it, elements remind me of Shape Of My Heart.
Overall I think all the songs are very strong, I hope we get to hear all of them released at some point.
I've been thinking about the problems of Spotify and illegal downloading overnight, and after a bit of early hours brainstorming this is a hypothetical solution that I've come up with, I'm dreaming a bit here, but all this is possible from a technical standpoint.
First of all, I have a feeling that due to the emergence of cloud based technologies, that over time services like Spotify might overtake traditional download services.
If I was going to create a Spotify/iTunes style service myself, this is what I'd do.
To start with, make it monthly subscription only, maybe release a free version later if viable, but monthly subscription only would be preferable.
Charge £10 a month, of which the company would get around £2.50, the rest would be divided between artists. (note I know there are licensing complications here with regards to labels/songwriters and artists)
The service would keep track of every song listened to by the listener, at the end of each month it would calculate a suggested division of money between artists and and display this to the listener.
The listener could then change the balance as they see fit if they think an artist deserves a higher percentage of the proceeds, there would be a minimum percentage limit, so each artist would always get something.
There could also be an e-tip jar, so listeners could tip artists who they think deserve extra.
It could be taken even further, artists could display publicly within the app how much they are due to be paid in royalties each month, with goals listed for how much they need to continue making music, and additional funding goals.
This would give much more power to the listener, at the moment the average person has no clue how much an artist is really paid for each purchase, and I have a feeling a lot of people would be shocked to know how low traditional royalty payments can be.
One possible flaw with this idea, is that by default, the more music artists listened to by a listener, the less would go to each individual artist, but my theory is that it would balance out, for instance, if someone only listens to 4 different artists over the month, the entire £7.50 would be divided between the 4 artists.
Now if you take the Spotify model, this would only relate to streaming, but from a technical standpoint this is rather silly, in digital terms, streaming and downloading send basically the same data to the user, it's just with streaming the application has been told not to save the data.
Maybe a different approach is needed, NOTE: crazy and scary idea coming up…
Why not think of downloads and streaming as the same? Don't charge directly for the download, instead pay the artist a royalty for each track played, no matter it it was streamed or downloaded, think of it as a performance.
This has an interesting side effect, both illegally downloaded music, and maybe even music imported from CD could be included. I suspect some artists/labels would be very excited to think that they could be continued to be paid for each play of a song.
At the same time this would encourage artists to create better albums, if people are still listening to your album 1,5 or 10 years later, you still get a cut.
The service could recommend new music that is similar to your tastes, and the algorithm could be weighted to prioritise new and independent artists.
It could alert you to when artists in your playlist are playing gigs, and gig ticket purchases should as handled from within the service, it should be made a easy as possible to buy tickets.
It should make it just as easy to purchase physical copies of albums you like form within the app too.
Anyway, this is just a hypothetical idea, I'm sure it has plenty of flaws. I welcome any comments.
Sorry, this is going to be a long post, I'm quite tired when writing this, sorry for any typos, will clean up text later.
This is a tricky problem, my opinion is that the major labels let the whole industry down (and especially the artists). Looking at it from my viewpoint, they had countless chances to embrace the Internet as the future of distribution, but at first they pretended it didn't exist, then they sued anyone bold enough to prove what could be done with it. MP3s first appeared on the Internet in 1994, Napster appeared in 1999, the iTunes music store didn't open in the USA until 2003!!! It took a computer company to show everyone how it should be done. Technically an iTunes store style service was possible in 1994.
Then they tried suing the file sharers themselves, I still remember the RIAA debacle of children and grandparents being summonsed to answer claims of illegal file sharing. Not forgetting that Sony put a trojan horse (XCP-Aurora) on a lot of their CDs for a while, and various labels deliberately pressed defective CDs to stop them being read on a computer. The music industry did a great job of alienating their customers. :(
Then there is the perceived value of music, which in part has has been eroded by labels doing deals with newspapers to give away free CDs, it was especially heartbreaking for me personally to see the Mail On Sunday giving away Tubular Bells a few years back (my late father cut the original vinyl master of it).
And it feels like shows such as The X-Factor are treating the public audition process as a modern day freak show for audience entertainment.
So, that brings us to today. In a lot of ways I am more positive about the music industry than ever, artists have more power than ever before, the days of sending demos to every label in the hope of getting signed are pretty much gone, but it's now possible to record,release and distribute an album without having to be signed to a label.
But, as you have shown, this is not without its problems.
Peer to Peer
Illegal file sharing (or copyright infringement if you prefer) is still a major problem, but from my perspective as a former technical manager for an ADSL ISP, I don't think it's stoppable. At best it's a game of whack-a-mole, as you block one peer to peer network, someone creates a new one. Some services you can't feasibly block, BitTorrent is used for a lot of legitimate purposes for instance. Blocking access to illegal files isn't practical either, P2P is a very different animal to HTTP, a cleanfeed style system would be largely ineffective for P2P, the government haven't realised this yet, but I suspect they will soon enough.
Even if you do manage to block it, all someone has to do to get around it is to connect to an anonymous encrypted network such as TOR, then they wouldn't even be traceable.
So, you can't really stop it, so that leaves 5 alternatives as far as I can see.
1. Do nothing and ignore P2P.
2. Make legal music purchases significantly more attractive than illegal downloads.
3. Make people understand how much artists need their support.
4. Mould P2P into a system for promoting new music and artists. (think of it as the new radio, but better)
5. Tax broadband connections to reimburse artists, maybe handled in a similar way to royalty payments for radio play are handled.
My feeling is that a combination of the last 4 options could work - as much as we want it to, it looks like P2P isn't going away.
Spotify
I think Spotify is a great service, I've even used it a few times to introduce people to new artists, but the big problem is that the royalty payment for independent artists is terrible. :( I could be mistaken, but I've read that the major labels get much better rates for each play and even get an advance. This needs to be addressed soon, independent artists should receive the same treatment as major label artists.
For independent artists it's barely better than P2P at the moment.
Live
This should be where the majority of the money comes from, but as you've proven, it doesn't always work that way. It seems like a lot of artists are getting a raw deal, we need better promoters, venues and much fairer payouts for artists. It doesn't help that so many live music venues and pubs have closed down.
There needs to be a new bread of live music venues. In fact, I'd go as far as to say that someone needs to create an "Apple Retail Store" style chain of combined music stores and live music venues. It's getting hard to buy music on the high street now, HMV are next to useless and the supermarkets only stock chart stuff. I'd love to see a music store that sells the best in new music, gives priority to independent artists and puts on live music every evening. Rough Trade East would probably be the nearest equivalent at the moment.
In a related point, sometimes people will pay a premium for unique gig experiences, for instance, your album pre-launch intimate acoustic gig was really special. I'd happy pay extra for special gigs of that calibre.
Promotion
This is one of the biggest problems that I can see an independent artist having, although social media has made things easier, It's still difficult for independent bands to find new fans.
Myspace isn't much use anymore, Facebook and Twitter are still useful, but they're better for keeping in touch with existing fans.
There is very little music on mainstream TV these days, Jools Holland is one of the few programmes, but even that seems to have lost its way a bit recently. I'd love to see someone create a web based new independent music show with very high production values, maybe like Top Of The Pops crossed with Later.
The question is, how can artists, how can WE (I guess the fans are just as much a part of this equation as the artists) solve these problems, or looking at this on a smaller scale... How can artists and fans get the word out and make sure their favourite artists are supported so they can continue to make amazing music?
With 2010 now behind us, I though now would be a good time to share some of my plans, hopes and slightly crazy dreams for 2011 and beyond.
Things I'd like to do and places I'd like to go to in 2011, I'll be very lucky if I manage to check a few of these off my list.
Spend more time with friends and try to be better at keeping in touch.
Have more fun, meet new friends and worry less.
VIsit Japan - This might have to wait until 2012, but I've wanted to go for a long time, I'd really love to spend a month or two touring it, but doubt I'll have the time to do that in the near future. Fingers crossed I can find the time to spend a week or two out there this year or next.
There are plenty of other places I'd love to visit too, one dream of mine is to travel London to Beijing via train, it just sounds like such an interesting journey. I'd probably go London->Paris, Paris - Moscow via the direct sleeper service, then on to Beijing via Siberia and Mongolia. This is rather ambitious since I've never been to mainland Europe! :( All of my overseas travel experience has been within the USA so far. It wouldn't be that expensive, but it would require a significant chunk of time to do, so that might have to wait for a bit.
I might take a few short trips to destinations in Europe.
Learn some more Japanese - I only know a few dozen words, but I'd love to be fluent one day, Japanese is a really interesting and complicated but quite logical language.
Glastonbury 2011 - I Loved Glastonbury 2010, one of the best experiences of my life, can't wait to go back this year.
Get out to more gigs - There are so many artists I haven't seen live yet: Theoretical Girl, iMMa, Jamiroquai, Sara Bareilles, Marina and the diamonds, Bomb The Bass are just a few of them.
And there are plenty of artists I hope to see again this year: Nerina Pallot, 6 Day Riot, The Chain, Pearl and the Puppets, She Makes War, Prodigy, Leftfield, Orbital.
Ice Skating - Always wanted to give it a go but I have to find somewhere that has skates for my clown-size (14!) feet first, Somerset House maybe.
Maybe take a few dancing lessons - It looks like great fun but I'm about a graceful as a giraffe on roller skates in that regard so need all the help I can get.
Improve my keyboard and guitar skills - I can play both, but I'm not good at either, I still struggle with the F barre chord on guitar. Maybe I should find the time to take a few professional lessons.
Improve my fitness level - Working as a software developer means I sit down for hours each day, and my fitness level has suffered as a result, at one stage I was nearly 3st overweight. I've worked hard and have lost well over 2st now, but still need to work on on my fitness.
Improve my objective-c and Perl programming skills - I'm pretty good, but there is always room for improvement
Continue improving my Photography/Video skills - Photography is one of my favourite hobbies, my video skills need a lot of work, my photography skills are pretty good, but I'd like to become more proficient at both.
Get a photo published as an album/EP/single cover or inlay artwork. - unlikely to happen but would be awesome if it did.
Maybe find a girl by the end of 2011 to share a proper New Year's Kiss with - Not easy as I'm a bit of a geek, but you never know.
Ultimately I'll be very happy if 2011 is a year of good health, shared experiences with friends and family and a few good gigs.
I hope this is a great year for all of us, I know a lot of my friends (both offline and online ones) have had a difficult time of things in 2010, fingers crossed this year will be better and things will work out how you want them to.
Oxjam!
You may or may not be aware of Oxjam, it's a month long charity music festival organised by Oxfam, various music events are hosted during the month of october by various members of the public and venues all around the country. To launch Oxjam, Oxfam convert one of their charity stores in London to be a music venue for 4 nights and invite some great artists to play. I've been going to the launch gigs since 2009, these gigs are pretty special.
This year it was held at an Oxfam store in Dalston, I went to 3 of the 4 nights. On the first night Diana Vickers was headlining, with support from Pearl and the Puppets and Liz Lawrence.
I'd never seen Pearl and the Puppets, but was very impressed, Katie Sutherland has a lovely voice, and she has some great songs, you might have heard some of her music already, 'Because I do' was used in the Tamara Drewe trailer.
Liz Lawrence was a last minute replacement for Gabriella Cilmi, I was disappointed when I heard Gabriella had pulled out, as I've wanted to see her live for a while, but Liz Lawrence was a great replacement. She seemed a bit shy and didn't talk much, but has a very nice voice and played a great set.
Diana Vickers
You might be surprised to find out that I quite like Diana Vickers, as she's far more mainstream than most of the artists I follow, well you can blame Nerina Pallot for this, Ms Vickers is a fan of Nerina Pallot, and asked if she'd write a song for her, so Nerina gave her an existing unrecorded song called "Put It back Together" which made it on to Diana's first album.
I hadn't really listened to much of Diana Vickers work, but Hearing Put It Back Together performed live for the first time at the Union Chapel made me realise that Diana Vickers actually has a really nice voice. It's highly variable, as I've seen her live a few times on TV when she's sounded pretty rough, but when she's good, she's very good. I suspect that the slightly unpredictable nature of her voice is down to that she's still very young and has been a bit overworked this last year.
Taking this into account I was a little apprehensive at seeing her live at Oxjam, but she put on a very good performance, her voice did get a little shaky during her final 2 songs, but the rest sounded great. I discovered something I didn't know about her: she can play the trumpet!
Annoyingly, although I like her live, most of her album isn't quite as good as it should be, the songs are decent enough, and some of them are very good. but most of them feel a little overproduced, the one exception is Put It Back Together, which does sound better, but that was produced in-house by Nerina Pallot & Andy Chatterley (Nerina Pallot's husband) so it's to be expected, but even this has a little over-level clipping and distortion on Diana's vocal (it's most noticeable during the line "I think we'll be alright" around 45 seconds in), so I suspect someone fiddled with the levels during final mastering. :(
I'm getting a bit tired of hearing pop tracks that have been mastered to -5Db+ and have had the dynamic range compressed out of them, I haven't analysed the album closely enough to verify that it has been mastered to this level, but it feels like it has.
But I digress. Anyway... The first night of Oxjam was a lot of fun, probably one of my gigs of the year.
Oxjam gig 2: Johnny Borrell
I didn't know what to expect, I like Razorlight's music, but have never seen them live, but I was curious to see what Johnny Borrell was like as a solo artist live.
Little Comets (http://www.myspace.com/littlecometsmusic)
First on were Little Comets, never heard them before, but I liked them a lot, reminded me a little of 2 Door Cinema Club, I've heard them played a bit on 6 Music since, so I suspect they are going to go far.
One Night in October is a good song to listen to if you want an idea of what they sound like.
Pope Joan (http://www.myspace.com/popejoan)
I liked them, they sound quite different so a little difficult to categorise, haven't had chance to check out their music since, but might sometime. I was quite impressed that they used a Novation BassStation live on stage. :)
Johnny Borrell
Very impressed, he played a set of new material and new versions of Razorlight classics, his solo sound has quite a punk vibe to it. He even sang Dalston :)
Night 3: Ikonika and Four Tet
Ikonika (http://www.myspace.com/ikonika)
Ikonika was a last minute replacement for Howie B, I didn't know Ikonika's music, but I'd heard of her within dubstep circles, what followed was a set of quite minimalistic heavy dubstep, now I like dubstep, but not knowing her tracks made it pretty difficult to get into her music at first. After a while I began to hear some tracks I liked the sound of, and by the end I was quite disappointed she was finishing.
Four Tet (http://www.myspace.com/fourtetkieranhebden)
Four Tet is a remixer who is known for remixing Radiohead and for creating his own tracks, he mainly played his own tracks, but his set was very good and the crowd loved it.
My only complaint about this evening is that it wasn't as good as last year's DJ lineup, which had the Stereo MCs, Basement Jaxx and Fatboy Slim on the bill, but that set a very high standard to live up to.
Found an official Oxjam launch gig video on youtube:
October
6 Fest
6 Fest was a little festival held at Venue 229 on Great Portland Street in celebration of 6Music being saved, the lineup was a closely guarded secret so until I arrived at the venue I didn't know who'd be playing.
Unfortunately, Grace (a friend of mine who wanted to attend), couldn't go. :( Completely understandable as She was majorly jetlagged and not feeling great, she'd only just returned from Australia after running the Sydney Marathon! Completed in 5h, 24m. Very well done Grace!
The Lineup was interesting, hadn't heard of many of the acts, Saw too many to go into them all, but a few of the best were:
Beth Jeans Houghton and the Hooves of Destiny (http://www.myspace.com/bethjeanshoughton)
I liked them, they have a folk inspired sound, reminded me a little of Theoretical Girl.
Adam Buxton
Utter genius, he even did a live version of Help The Police, this is the original sketch if you haven't seen it:
Total Shambles
The 6 Music house band comprises various DJs and staff from 6 Music, they actually were very entertaining.
The Jim Jones Revue (http://www.myspace.com/thejimjonesrevue)
An absolutely amazing modern Rock and Roll band, I can understand why rock and roll must have sounded so exciting when it first appeared on the scene.
