Une Enfant Du Siècle News/Discussion!

[lefty12357]

@Deep, it looks like we are just going to have to agree to disagree on the value of embodying a musical performance in a physical object. Of course in some ways it's not that different. Whether your ones and zeros are embodied on a plastic disc, a hard drive or an ipod or chip, they have to be embodied somewhere. It's just that the digital download will not have a very long life stored on magnetic media.

As a side note, the Dead Sea Scrolls are on display at the Science Museum here. It's amazing to see ideas embodied in a tangible form that is 2000 years old. I wonder where our ones and zeros will be even 100 years from now if they are all stored on hard drives and ipods? It's something I hope the archivists of the world are dealing with.

As far as leaks go, time is needed to arrange all the promo, TV and radio appearances, print media, etc. to coincide with the album release. I honestly don't think there is a way to avoid leaks unless you release it with most of the promo lagging behind. Even then, a significant number of people will have already had access to the music in order to ready it for release. I don't think leaks are easily preventable in any case. There's too many people to control, and the digital medium and the internet make it so easy to do. I actually think they did a pretty good job this time around. We're only talking a few weeks in this case. It could have been much worse.

Edit: I was looking on the American Amazon and I noticed this:



UEDS is ranked accordingly in the following music categories; #99 in World, #62 in Europe, #9 in Continental Europe and #3 in France. It's ranked #1318 overall. Now these may not be great numbers, but consider that this is an Alizée pre-order album on an American site that sells hundreds of thousands of different albums. These numbers can change dramatically and frequently, but I'm not sure she has been this high in ranking before. Let's hope a trend is developing. A few days ago she was above 9000 overall.

[stephenfalken]

Yes, I ordered my box set, because I want to support Alizee's career. Just wanted to get that out of the way.

I've been reading messages in this thread concerning the idea of piracy, and thought I'd throw in my two cents.

It's always been my contention (as a recording and performing artist myself) that people don't mind paying for music - they only mind paying inflated prices for music. The paying public is just too well-educated to put up with corporate greed these days. THAT is why CD's dont sell anymore - they're overpriced by a factor of 4.

For a CD with an SLRP of $16.98, the lucky artist who gets a 14% royalty will only net around $1.78 per unit. Most royalties are paid at much lower rates than this.

How many people do you think would download an Alizee record for $1.78?
I figure, almost EVERYONE.
Want people to buy CD's again? Then make them worth their price.

In the band I work with, we record our albums using state-of-the-art software and recording equipment that we own ourselves. We might spend around $8-10k for packaging, recording, remixing. We do most of our own promotion instead of buying adverts.

We haven't sold more than maybe 7-8000 copies of our two CDs, but our unit net is close to $7. And, we all still have day jobs.

Looking at a gestalt of the scene, I'd say that the facts bear out the truth that big record companies are trying to condition people into complaining about so-called "theft" of artists' work. But it's not the artists who are losing the most money, not by a long shot.

The fact is that the big four are no longer necessary, and they're doing anything they can to try to remain relevant. Via the RIAA, they're striking out at anything that comes close to their profits, acting like rats in a corner. How appropriate.

The artists themselves will frequently admit this truth, albeit off the record. Elements of most every recording contract signed today contain specific language about being publicly critical of your record company. Contracts even go as far as categorizing the artist as an 'employee'. How sad.

In my experience, it's a sickening transformation from a beautiful happy (or haunting) song in your mind into a quantified unit of financial potential. Artists themselves are starting to understand that they no longer need be beholden to corporate interests.

Professional quality music is now being made daily without the intervention of BMG, EMI, Warner or universal. I for one sincerely hope that Lili will eventually hire her own recording, distribution and marketing teams. It would be a welcome change to see her music done on her own terms.

Then we could all afford four copies.

[Deepwaters]

Originally Posted by lefty12357

@Deep, it looks like we are just going to have to agree to disagree on the value of embodying a musical performance in a physical object.

You cannot "agree to disagree" about objective, verifiable facts. I am not talking about my taste versus yours, I am talking about the results of a marketing decision in sales and impact on the market. It is a fact -- objective and verifiable and not something that can be reasonably disagreed about -- that the chief medium of music transmission today is the digital download and no longer the CD. You may or may not LIKE that fact, but it remains a fact nonetheless.

It's just that the digital download will not have a very long life stored on magnetic media.

I have no idea what you're talking about here. Stored on hard drive, it will have as long a life as the hard drive itself, and can be copied to another drive with no loss of quality. That's the main advantage of digital over analog recording. (Of course, analog also has advantages, but there's no reason why they can't coexist on the market.)

I wonder where our ones and zeros will be even 100 years from now if they are all stored on hard drives and ipods? It's something I hope the archivists of the world are dealing with.

I imagine they are, but I'll tell you this: digital storage is a LOT more reliable than storage in print for the written word. I'm sure it is for film and music, too. With digital storage, there is no such thing as a book being "out of print," and, barring a collapse of civilization, it becomes literally impossible to lose. Except for books that have become classics, can we obtain copies of anything from the 19th century? Not with any reliability, but 21st century reading material will be available thousands of years from now in its entirety. The problem will not be preserving it but sifting through the abundance to find what you're looking for.

Movies, too. Consider the condition of old films today from the early 20th century. Film wears out and degrades over time. Analog copies made of old masters lose some of the resolution. Digital copies, though, last essentially forever. True, any one storage medium, one hard drive or DVD, will not, but the fact that perfect copies can be made makes any film immortal once it's been published. The same logic applies to music.

The only way that more primitive means of storage have a survivability advantage is if we do have a breakdown of civilization, because digital storage depends on such things as electricity. But then, so does all music production more sophisticated than the live-performance acoustic band.

As far as leaks go, time is needed to arrange all the promo, TV and radio appearances, print media, etc. to coincide with the album release.

W/r/t piracy, I don't think that's true. It's just a habit on the part of the record companies holding over from the days of the CD. Since there is no cost at all to deliver a copy of a song by download or to store it, there is no reason whatever why it can't be released as early as it is available in final form, before any promotion is done. If it sits there in storage for two or three weeks before the word gets out, what of it? That doesn't cost anything, but those who are motivated to look for it before the promo comes out will be able to do so on legitimate channels, rather than on pirate ones. (Those who don't know about it, of course, won't look for it from either legitimate OR illegitimate sources.)

The only reason why in the past it was thought that promotion had to be done before release is because the release itself cost money, and every day CDs sit unsold in warehouses or record stores also costs money. So you needed to get the sales rolling as soon as the realease happened, to minimize the cost of storage and to front-load revenues. With downloads, none of that logic applies.

I honestly don't think there is a way to avoid leaks unless you release it with most of the promo lagging behind. Even then, a significant number of people will have already had access to the music in order to ready it for release. I don't think leaks are easily preventable in any case.

But as I said, there's no reason not to release it with most of the promo lagging behind, and there is also no reason to be concerned about leaks if it is instantly available from legitimate sources for a low price. It's not a question of preventing leaks, but of undercutting any damage that leaks might do. I agree, you can't stop the leaks, but if you get the product out into the market immediately instead of waiting, you won't have to.

Good news from Amazon. I'll be adding to that myself this weekend.

[Topaz]

My choice of listening device:

[lefty12357]

Originally Posted by Topaz

My choice of listening device:

Lol, Looks like you get the last word on this one, Topaz. Otherwise this thread will surely become derailed.

[clique]

It's not often that I agree with what Deep says... This is one of those time though. He has basically said everything already, but this is my (very) quick input:

Digital distribution is the way of the future, be it music, games or movies. The sooner companies realise this, the better for everyone.

[lefty12357]

Originally Posted by clique

It's not often that I agree with what Deep says... This is one of those time though. He has basically said everything already, but this is my (very) quick input:

Digital distribution is the way of the future, be it music, games or movies. The sooner companies realise this, the better for everyone.

I don't think we were debating the importance of the digital download itself. I don't have the numbers at hand, but I believe 20% of albums sold in the USA in 2009 were digital downloads, and 15% in the UK. These numbers have grown by leaps and bounds in the last few years and I would imagine will continue to do so. There are some albums that have actually had over 50% of their sales as digital downloads. The ninety-nine cent per song model also seems particularly popular and successful, especially in the US.

I would imagine we would all agree that it would be nice to see Alizée's album available and easily assessable for legal digital download to her fans worldwide, including the USA. US Amazon offers the CD, but no digital download of UEDS. I hope they will soon.

There are two new competitions with Live Music and Clark Magazine.

The winners will get a chance to participate in the listening party of Alizée's new album on 24th March.

http://www.ricardsa-livemusic.com/qcm.php?id_qcm=5

http://www.clarkmagazine.com/news/al...xceptionnelle/

There is one simple question in the quiz by Live Music and I guess everyone here knows the answer of that.

In the quiz by Clark Magazine, the question is interesting and I wonder how many of us know the answer.

Who did the artwork for the new album Alizée?

Send your answer and your full name (and those of the person who will accompany you) by mail to infos@clarkmagazine.com stating in the subject Alizée. The fastest correct answer will receive a confirmation email with the exact address of the evening.

Two people will get a chance to attend a special private party Wednesday, March 24th at 20h in Paris in presence of the artist and his producer (the location is kept secret and will be revealed if you are the lucky winner of this sesame for two people). You'll have the chance to attend a mini live monitoring of Alizee DJ Sets.

On that day, there will be:
- A special evening that will mix fans & media
- Presence of Alizee and her new producers
- A minimum of Alizee live (which should be filmed by TV guests) will be followed by DJ sets

Good Luck for all of you!!!
Source: nidalizee.com

[Deepwaters]

So that's what she was talking about on her most recent Facebook entry. I was confused.

Originally Posted by Deepwaters

So that's what she was talking about on her most recent Facebook entry. I was confused.

Yeah, it's good to know that fans will get such a chance. Well I know both answers to both the questions, but that's of no use.

Edit:

One more news about the album from nidalizee.com:

Deezer.com is offering legal preview of the album, but I guess this is for France only.

http://www.deezer.com/fr/music/alize...-siecle-503148

Find this evening 20H00 the full album release on the internet radio site, and then tomorrow the integration of the album tracks to the playlist radio.

Edit:



Edit:

By internet radio, I think the site means its internet radio. Can't understand how they will play the full album there.:confused