Thats why our album sounded like that

When we recorded we spent way too much money on hiring a percussionist and laying down layers of instrument tracks.. and i thought, ok that will sound cool, but when we got the mastered copy back you couldnt hear any of that and it was just this bland generic rock guitar sound on everything... we'll here's why.

The Death of High Fidelity

In the age of MP3s, sound quality is worse than ever

ROBERT LEVINE

Posted Dec 26, 2007 1:27 PM

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David Bendeth, a producer who works with rock bands like Hawthorne Heights and Paramore, knows that the albums he makes are often played through tiny computer speakers by fans who are busy surfing the Internet. So he's not surprised when record labels ask the mastering engineers who work on his CDs to crank up the sound levels so high that even the soft parts sound loud.

Over the past decade and a half, a revolution in recording technology has changed the way albums are produced, mixed and mastered — almost always for the worse. "They make it loud to get [listeners'] attention," Bendeth says. Engineers do that by applying dynamic range compression, which reduces the difference between the loudest and softest sounds in a song. Like many of his peers, Bendeth believes that relying too much on this effect can obscure sonic detail, rob music of its emotional power and leave listeners with what engineers call ear fatigue. "I think most everything is mastered a little too loud," Bendeth says. "The industry decided that it's a volume contest."

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The Year The Music Industry Broke - 2007

I hate to link MTV but this isnt a bad article.

Madonna Ditches Label, Radiohead Go Renegade: The Year The Music Industry Broke

In the first installment of our three-part series on the future of music, we take a look back at what went wrong and when.

In April, Trent Reznor released Year Zero, a concept album about a future society teetering on the brink of apocalypse. It was supposed to be a grand work of fiction, but it could just as easily have been about the music industry in 2007 — a bleak, burned-out world where the sky fell on a daily basis and the rivers ran red with the blood of record execs. (That the album didn't sell well only furthers the analogy ...)

Make no mistake about it, 2007 was a b-a-a-a-d year for the industry. According to Nielsen SoundScan, album sales were down 15 percent from 2006 (a trend that's continued for eight straight years now); big-name artists jumped ship in increasingly complicated — and messy — ways; and the powers-that-be seemed to get even more heartless and disconnected, thanks to a series of lawsuits, feuds and terrible decisions.

In fact, you could probably say that 2007 was Year Zero. Things started to change because they couldn't possibly get any worse.

In the first installment of our three-part series on the future of the music industry that is rolling out this week, here's a blow-by-blow recap of just how bad the year was ....

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The RIAA hates everything that doesn't make them money.

from Dailyplacebo.com

The RIAA hates everything that doesn't make them money. That's right, the RIAA hates puppies and wants to destroy them. So its no surprise that they hate and want to destroy webcasters. Especially since webcasters tend to play non-RIAA music. In a very mafioso "you'll use our service or no service at all" move the RIAA is backing royalty hikes. So smaller webcasters will be unable to pay the higher fees and driven out of business (even if they don't play RIAA music), further solidifying th RIAA's monopolistic grasp on what music is to be marketed. They don't care if they get the royalties, just that the webcasters get taken down; which makes less competition for the distribution of music whereby strengthening the RIAA's -say it with me- monopoly on the music industry.

Techdirt: Why Does The RIAA Hate Webcasters? Webcasters Don't Play Very Much RIAA Music

well said!

"The way the music died" Music Industry FAQ

this site might be old but it answers a lot of questions i've heard over the years.

questions like,

• Why do CDs cost so much?
• How does an artist get a song on the radio?
• What is the role of independent radio promoters and why is it controversial?

good read.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/music/inside/faqs.html


wow, theres some interviews with artists and music industry people
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/music/perfect/corp.html

and theres a lot more stuff i havent really got to dig into yet on the main PBS page for this.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/music/



this is some great stuff!!


you can also watch the entire PBS show on this on the site too.

its on my T0-Do list.

FRONTLINE kicks ass.

No Talent Required

A friend of mine was looking to start an all female rock band and posted an ad up online. this is one of her responses. This is what is one of the things that are very wrong with music industry today.
just read.

Subject: Looking for band- all female linkin park, limp bizkit, etc...
Date: Tue, 27 May 2003 04:23:55 EDT

Established L.A. based entertainment company (film/TV/music/print/management) Looking for female for some upcoming national projects and opportunities. We currently represent various television stars (NBC, UPN, USA, FX, etc...) and we have placed models/actresses in film and TV ranging from Paramount to New line, and from CBS to TNN to Showtime. In addition we have placed talent in print from Maxim to Playboy. We represent some of the nations top TV, print model, vocalists, musicians, dancers, and even Playmates. We are also currently lppking to put an all female rapcore style band with vocals together. The only pre-requisite is that you must be EXTREMELY attractive, a beautiful face and Magnificent body, as this is the current wave in all areas of the entertainment industry. Please note: This does NOT involve any adult work, it is strictly mainstream, nor does it involve any extra work, it is strictly featured or bigger. If you are a female actress, model, vocalist, musician, or dancer, and you feel you meet our pre-requisite and standards, and you are interested, please e-mail Photos (at least one head shot and one body shot, although a few of each would be preferred) or a weblink to your images, for our review and consideration, along with your contact # so that we may contact you and set up a meeting while we are in town.
Thanx and God bless.

extremely offended, as any musician would be, she wrote back and really tore him a new one. I dont have the email she wrote back to him, but you can use your imagination. Expecting to never hear from this guy again she was surprised to see this in her inbox shortly after.

Hi, I apologize if anything in our initial e-mail offended you, it was not intentional. You appear very, very angry, and I'm not sure exactly why. I don't even know you, and you told me to "go to hell." I don't know what could have possibly illicited a response of that caliber, so angry and disrespectful. I assure you that the e-mail we sent you is the very same e-mail we sent to over a hundred other potential candidates, and not one other person has responded in this fashion. In fact most have been very excited, appreciative, and have sent us the photos we requested. at the end of this e-mail I will add a couple of the responses we have received. I appreciate your love of music, and your position that music should come from the soul, in fact I agree with it. I myself have been an artist, a producer, and songwriter, but the fact is that business is business, and there is a reason why there are no new Aretha Franklins and Mellissa Ethridges bursting on to the scene. Even people that talented would not get record deals today, but there are many young ladies with a fraction of Aretha's voice, signing multi-million dollar deals, because of their face and body. In just about every genre of music, the industry is dominated by the beautiful ( Britney, Christina, Pink, Alicia keys, etc...) when you think of a massively successful female fronted rock band that dominates the airwaves of MTV or the covers of major magazines in the mainstream world, only No Doubt comes to mind. That has a lot to do with the fact that Gwen is hot and can wear shorts and a pink bikini top on the cover of Rolling stone and wear it well. When they first came out all everybody talked about was how hot she looked in those midriff tank tops. Even in Country music the big crossover stars are Shania, and Faith. Even little Leann Rimes took her top off for an extremely sexy cover of Maxim Blender. Even artist who were already established like J-Lo, Mariah, and Janet Jackson now use skin to sell every single record they put out. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and the beholder is the population and consumer base at large. Even the male artist are all marketed this way now. This is the current standard that drives the industry. I never meant to imply that talent wasn't necessary, but why is it any different for people to admire you because of ability, or looks, or both for that matter, they are both part of who a person is. Do you see any knew Sally Fields, Sissy Spaceks, or Meryl Streeps blowing up in the film industry today? No, but you do see a lot of non talented, or non trained or experienced girls becoming stars because of the way they look. I cannot change society, or what the masses at large want, the reason labels look for beauty, is because it sells, and it sells because that is what people want. I never said don't be deep, or don't come from the soul, or don't use your gifts and talent or don't be edgy with your look, I just said use your beauty and sex appeal along with everything else you have. A person can be tattooed up, and pierced and still be fine. The reason there are not more hugely successful female fronted, or all female bands, is because in most cases when you find a girl that can play, she isn't hot, but instead looks like a dude. When you find a girl that is hot, she usually can't play. When you find one that has both, and is packageable for super stardom in the rock genres, she is usually unwilling to use that either because she is a feminist and thinks it's wrong, or because she is a lesbian and doesn't want to excite men, or because she wants to be bad ass. If they would just use their looks, they would end up with a platform for the whole world to be affected and touched by their music, as well as be espected for their abilities, and would have a platform to reach the world at large with any message they want. but instead they choose not to use their looks and get lost in local obscurity. Once again, this is a business situation, and I meant no affence, for that I am truly sorry. I hope we can agree to disagree, and part with mutual respect for one another.

who else wants to punch this guy? whats most fucked up is that he's right. This is the sad state of the music industry. It may not 100% reflect what the masses want tho. But even if that is what the masses want... the masses are stupid by design. they've been conditioned. if you dont give them a choice of real talent they will pick the good looking hack.

Look at the 70's ... real song writers with great songs making hits that become classics. and they were UGLY! but it didnt matter it was music The industry is insulting us by giving us vacuous celebrity with nothing to offer but eye candy thinking thats all we will accept. There's room for heart throbs but dont confuse pretty faces with talented artists.

Douche bags like this need to be stabbed in the crotch by scorpions.