Work of Art in the Age of Cultural Overproduction
A couple of thoughts from the Decibel Music Festival:
1) Although it was fun being around likeminded electronic music nerds, discussing artists whose names I had never spoken aloud, my euphoria eventually settled into ambivalence.
This is, after all, probably how members of the Flat Earth Society feel when they meet up at their yearly convention: "Finally, people who really understand me!"
And an Electronic Music Festival is a fairly large umbrella to organize underneath. Confessing to being a fan of melodic ambient music often felt like admitting to being an atheist libertarian at a Tea Party rally.
2) As I was surfing artists' websites during downtime at the festival, I came across a blogpost by an artist encouraging people to buy albums.
It is a quaint idea, but a bit antiquated.
Although I still buy records, I doubt anybody from my brother's generation sees music as having any monetary worth. Instead of appealing to people's altruism, artists need to reintroduce the concept of scarcity.
At the Optical 3 concert, Tycho was selling beautiful print reproductions of his album cover artwork. Festival attendees were snapping up these limited edition prints, while his albums were laying on the merchandise table untouched.
Tycho's label, Ghostly International, exemplifies this strategy: its website not only offers albums for sale, but also other album-related totems -- literally. In conjunction with the release of Matthew Dear's new album Black City, Ghostly International is selling a totem that sculpturally represents the themes of the record. It is certainly not priced for everyone, but the devoted, in essence, subsidize the freeloaders. For example, back in 2008, Trent Reznor released Ghosts for free but made a killing selling 2,500 Ultra Deluxe Limited Edition sets for $300 a piece.
Surely not everyone has obsessive as a fanbase as Nine Inch Nails, but a favorite local artist of mine, Benoît Pioulard, has probably a fraction of the audience, yet limited handmade editions of his records sell out in a matter of hours. A benevolent soul, he only sells them for $25, but could probably still exhaust his inventory at $100 a pop.
I wonder if this, in part, explains the reemergence of cassettes among a generation who never had to deal with them in the first place. A nostalgia for the ephemeral and tactile in an age of cultural overproduction.
1) Although it was fun being around likeminded electronic music nerds, discussing artists whose names I had never spoken aloud, my euphoria eventually settled into ambivalence.
This is, after all, probably how members of the Flat Earth Society feel when they meet up at their yearly convention: "Finally, people who really understand me!"
And an Electronic Music Festival is a fairly large umbrella to organize underneath. Confessing to being a fan of melodic ambient music often felt like admitting to being an atheist libertarian at a Tea Party rally.
2) As I was surfing artists' websites during downtime at the festival, I came across a blogpost by an artist encouraging people to buy albums.
It is a quaint idea, but a bit antiquated.
Although I still buy records, I doubt anybody from my brother's generation sees music as having any monetary worth. Instead of appealing to people's altruism, artists need to reintroduce the concept of scarcity.
At the Optical 3 concert, Tycho was selling beautiful print reproductions of his album cover artwork. Festival attendees were snapping up these limited edition prints, while his albums were laying on the merchandise table untouched.
Tycho's label, Ghostly International, exemplifies this strategy: its website not only offers albums for sale, but also other album-related totems -- literally. In conjunction with the release of Matthew Dear's new album Black City, Ghostly International is selling a totem that sculpturally represents the themes of the record. It is certainly not priced for everyone, but the devoted, in essence, subsidize the freeloaders. For example, back in 2008, Trent Reznor released Ghosts for free but made a killing selling 2,500 Ultra Deluxe Limited Edition sets for $300 a piece.
Surely not everyone has obsessive as a fanbase as Nine Inch Nails, but a favorite local artist of mine, Benoît Pioulard, has probably a fraction of the audience, yet limited handmade editions of his records sell out in a matter of hours. A benevolent soul, he only sells them for $25, but could probably still exhaust his inventory at $100 a pop.
I wonder if this, in part, explains the reemergence of cassettes among a generation who never had to deal with them in the first place. A nostalgia for the ephemeral and tactile in an age of cultural overproduction.
posted by d l wright at 10/06/2010 11:05:00 PM
2 Comments:
I actually think this is the future for many musicians and authors. If what you create becomes intangible, discrete and scarce objects will have that much more value to your fans.
The trick will be creating something that has enough value that your fans don't feel ripped off. Or that isn't really scarce. (I.e. all those limited edition video game sets. Blizzard does that right. They mean limited.)
maybe some limited edition cover art inspired chuck taylors, or an iphone skin. or a case to hold your american spirits. PBR cozy. handlebar tape.
or you could just have glee do a version of your song.
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