The Sound Age - Music industry Podcast

The horrific story of the next big thing in rock. Ian Watkins will be remembered as one of the most evil people in the history of music. 

A few years back I was looking to make a ticketing site that essentially scrapped booking fees, we got to the point where we had an investor working with us, but researching small venues we found out that Australia was uniquely different than the rest of the world. Almost every single small venue in Australia had EXCLUSIVE deals with 1 or 2 ticketing sites. This doesn't seem like a problem until you think what are tickets in 2022? In 2004 tickets were lining up in a newsagents waiting for the 6am ticket release and buying from a person behind a booth. Today it's an email with a qr code attached. But the booking fees have never changed. You still pay 10-15% or more on top of your $20 ticket for your local venue that holds 350 people.

It makes sense for stadiums and festivals and major tours to use a ticketing site, but these days small clubs can very easily sell their own tickets, they can collect their customers data to form a mailing list, $3 per person doesn't sound like that much of an issue, but that's over $1000 every night in a club that holds 350 people. In the local music scene that's a lot of money. If venues sold their own tickets they could save the customers money or they could use that extra money to pay local bands $1000 more every night.

The Charts are a measure of success for an artist, they are also a trophy for artists that last the span of the their career. So it's no surprise that labels and managers have concocted ways to manufacture chart positions. This episode I break down a few ways artists have schemed their way to the top and also how the problem was solved and then unsolved meaning we still live in a world where you can essentially buy a chart position. 

What happens when a TV trivia show mentions the similarity of a children's song and one of Australia's biggest hits 27 years after it's release. The owners of the copyright who never even realised the similarity go on a rampage to extract whatever money they can from the artists. The result, $4.5 million in damages and court costs and the downward spiral and eventual death of the musician at the centre of the court case. It highlights a glaring problem with Copyright law. If the motives and timeframe for copyright infringement is not considered in the case, then as more songs are sold to private investors, labels and publishers through NFT's and other means, there will be an increase in petty little copyright claims. After all these private investors are removed from the art of making music, they are in the art of making money.

Deep Fake audio will continue to get better, at one point it will be indistinguishable from real artists. At that point what happens to music and musicians. What happens when labels decide to keep an artist alive after their death by using Music AI and Deep Fake technology to release music in the exact likeness of the deceased artist. If we can keep ACDC alive with new music every year for 1000 years, what will ACDC look and sound like? With every recreation it becomes less and less familiar until one day we live in a dystopian hell, devoid of actual music.

The creation of iTunes meant artists couldn't release more experimental tracks near the end of an album anymore, every song had to be a single.
The creation of Spotify meant hit songwriters wrote songs in a way to keep the listener streaming for at least 30 seconds to collect the stat
And then Til Tok happened and the art of songwriting is completely turned on its head.

This episode is about the dumbing down of songwriting from the creativity in writing hooks, to the length of songs. Music is not what it used to be.

The battle to keep our Aussie pub rock culture alive has been one sided. We have lost out to gambling decade after decade. But this episode is more than just a retelling of facts. I come with a plan. If we can't beat them, why don't we join them.

Tune in to find out how I think Aussie pub rock can return to dominance.

The historical tale of the music industry fighting a war with the very people who put them in power. A bitter battle that put rockstars against children. Mega corporations against single parents. A David and Goliath story where both sides were evil.

The anti hero of this story is someone you have never heard of before: a thieving single mother who took on the world, lost, but took down the music industry with her. The aftermath is what we are left with today.

This is the New Wave of Classic Rock. The future of Rock N Roll

To pre order the compilation album go to www.nwocr.com

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The term rockstar gets thrown around very easily. But if we are applying a strict interpretation of the term, we are talking about sex drugs and rock n roll. An over the top character that defies the norm. The party lifestyle of rock n roll was diminished in the 90s but one man embraced the lifestyle, the flamboyant, unique and entertaining front man of Stone Temple Pilots and Then Velvet Revolver. Scott Weiland embodied everything that was rock n roll, the good the bad and the ugly. And like many before him, it cost him his life. This is the tragic story of Scott Weiland - The Last True Rockstar

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Building a career in music is not easy. There are DIY methods to success but the best way to get your music heard is to build a team. This episode breaks down 4 key roles the serious musician should look for. What these roles actually do and how to approach these people. Share with fellow musicians. Will be doing a few more of the band advice episodes. So hopefully you get something from this.

I threw away the script and freestyle'd this episode. I didn't think it needed a soundtrack or an intro. Just me and my words. In this episode I try to link the music industry to the mental health problems that sometimes plague the industry. It's a major industry full of unsafe work conditions and unrealistic demands on the very people we look up to. And don't be afraid or ashamed to talk to someone, it doesn't always have to be a doctor.

A fan fiction album title and track list on reddit, turned into a global man hunt for clues for an album that never existed. But the album did actually exist. 3 punk rockers from Canada tricked tens of thousands of Green Day fans into believing Green Days new album would be called Magnum Opus of the Inglorious Kind. 

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Many Rock bands are stuck still trying to sell CDs when today’s youth don’t even own CD players. Many rock fans boycott streaming because of propaganda articles painting half truths on an artist's income. This episode explains how pop artists are still thriving. Because they have evolved.

In September 1986, Metallica bassist Cliff Burton and Kirk Hammett drew cards to see who would get what bed on their tour bus. That night the bus crashed and Cliff Burton was killed. This episode predicts what music would sound like in 2021 if the cards fell a different way that night. What would music sound like if Metallica never went on past Master Of Puppets

This is the unlikely story of a group of music fans who started a Facebook group and changed the UK music scene. The group has rallied a nation and helped previously local bands into the UK charts. Welcome to the New Wave Of Classic Rock