He *hates* Alexa, Amazon, and especially Amazon Music.
What is there to hate? They just play music you request. --- Frank C. Wimberly 140 Calle Ojo Feliz, Santa Fe, NM 87505 505 670-9918 Santa Fe, NM On Sun, Aug 22, 2021, 12:47 PM Steve Smith <[email protected]> wrote: > On 8/22/21 8:28 AM, ⛧ glen wrote: > > It does both, perhaps counterintuitively. I'd argue it facilitates traffic > between demes/cliques, but inhibits the content of demes/cliques. > > > I am a sucker for local AM radio when traveling... to put my finger on the > pulse of the locals, as it were. What music they listen to, what their > news-of-choice leans toward, and what they are buying/selling/trading with > one another. "If you can hear this station, what you hear *might* be > relevant to you *right now*" > > When internet radio stations started popping up (KTAO in Taos being an > early adopter), I found myself sampling these local stations around the > world... one in particular being in Australia (forget the call sign/town) > and having a strong familiarity to the myriad country AND western stations > up and down the rockies and out into the plains of the US West, but with an > Aussie accented DJ of course. Unfortunately it didn't replicate the > experience because I was patently NOT there... I could NOT plan a detour to > catch the local farmer's market or check out a local joint (where there > burgers would have pineapple and plum sauce instead of pickles and > ketchup)... But what I was most struck by was that they were playing 95% > American Mainstream (C&W) music and referencing OUR icons of music > deeply/exclusively. Only occasionally would I catch a "local" artist > (Australeonesia?) I felt simultaneously expanded and constrained. > > When I moved to a small city/big town on the border (DouglasAZ/Agua Prieta > SA) our first neighbors were a Mexican American family who were one of the > local bands that played every venue, mostly rock but with their own > ranchera stylization often. They would sit around evenings playing a wide > range of music, including the father, a sister and a younger brother (maybe > 5? too young to participate in the public events). We moved away from > that house within 6 months but I continued to hear them the whole 8 years I > lived in that town, they probably played at both of my proms and any other > public musical event I might have attended. What never crossed my mind > (until now) was that for the 4 years I was a Disc Jockey, I never heard > them play on air, nor was I motivated/inclined to seek them out. Why not? > Linda Ronstadt (100 miles away) was hitting it big from similar roots, why > not them? I guess because they weren't on the Billboard Top 100 charts > they sent us every month, telling us what was hot and what was not? They > had no route to get known beyond the local bars and public venues. > > Both of my daughters partnered with aspiring musicians as they came of > age. There have been several bands involved and those partners even > occasionally found time to make music together (though never recorded > together). These bands never made it beyond local recognition... "Billy > and the Belmonts", "Oktober People", "Weapons of Mass Destruction" all come > to mind. And yet one of them was going on a self-promoted tour of the > west when we were in Berkeley, CA for a year and in fact, totally by > coincidence, had gotten booked at an Irish Pub ("Starry Plough") just a > short walk from our apartment (actually probably the closest watering hole > to our apartment). It was just off Telegraph, right on the Oakland border > (as was our back fence)... in what other world (pre/sans Internet) could a > band like that find a pub like that? While Terry (daughter's now husband) > had the resources (as a Technical College instructor) to own a van, mix > their own music on Garage Band, cut their own CDs and print their own > T-shirts (aka Merch)... They would have been sleeping in his van the whole > way (instead of being gifted couch-stays by their nascent mySpace fan base) > and would have had to make a LOT of phone calls and snail-mail inquiries to > secure the venues they were able to do online through the digital social > networks circa 2005. Their music was out there for sampling on MySpace > and while all that (the bands as well as MySpace) are all defunct and > rotting away in digital history, it made it a lot further than I think it > could have in the days of vinyl or cassette tape. I do still have CDs of > their music and it is ripped to my hard drive as well... but can't find any > of it to speak of online 8 years after dissolution. My t-shirts are all > rags now, they were made on budget blanks I'm sure. > > Terry (of WMD/Belmont fame) is now the bass player for Queen Chief in > Portland OR. Their preferred streaming platform seems to be bandcamp.com > which seems to be *trying* to provide a direct route from artist to > audience, but unspurprisingly Alexa doesn't support Bandcamp and while they > also stream on Spotify, my understanding of that service is that they won't > see any significant income from that stream. I don't believe any of the > band members depends on the band for a significant source of income, Terry > certainly doesn't, though it may support his recording/instrument > collecting habits somewhat. > > They just released a couple of singles this year. A stoner rock rendition > of Hank William's classic "Kaw-Liga > <https://open.spotify.com/album/2U88jwoi9ZKRHjTgG1YIDu>" and their own In > my Eyes <https://open.spotify.com/album/1oaVT5IS8jIm6xpJ2RlH2o>. > > Spotify refers me right away to bands (I presume equally struggling/indie) > like King Black Acid, Royal Fuz, RZRS, and Hurriah. While I like QC's > lyrics and musical "style" it is all too high energy for my old ears/soul, > so I tend to listen to a new track or album a few times when it comes out, > but don't have it ripped to my car sound system nor pull it up regularly > (though In my Eyes is thumping/chanting away in the background as I type > this)... > > Mary's son (who edits bills for the TX legislature by day) is also a > drummer in an indie band in Austin and they eschew streaming in favor of > the (semi) classic medium of CDs and live-shows. They gently dissolved > last year after a 10 year run... the quarterly live-shows in various > dive-bars were what was keeping them going (emotionally/creatively?)... > and they also have all hit middle age. > > Digital/Online/Streaming has definitely changed the fitness landscape for > aspiring independent artists and for music buffs. Mary's son is a total > movie/music buff and shares his listening time between classic vinyl and > the flood of new music coming to him over his own social networks from > friends of friends of friends who are independent singer-songwriters/bands. > > I like Glen's gesture toward analyzing this in terms of network/graph > models... I think the data is out there for anyone to gather/study up to a > point. Josh's (Mary's son) collection of vinyl and hand-cut CDs probably > is hidden for the most part from any database, though he *might* not be > astute enough to turn off Google/Android's "what music is playing right > now" service... maybe what he listens to is being analyzed on some Google > Brat's Friday Project right now? He *hates* Alexa, Amazon, and especially > Amazon Music. > > It's a wild new world, even though everything feels pretty much the same > (only different). > > - Steve > > > > > On August 22, 2021 6:51:02 AM PDT, Jochen Fromm <[email protected]> > <[email protected]> wrote: > > In the last virtual FRIAM meeting Jonathan Zingale mentioned that streaming > services confine our access to music, because they mainly offer mainstream > music.IMHO they also broaden our access to music: as a European I can listen > to music from all around the world. I have for example German, Italian, > Australian, British, American and Spanish playlists on Spotify. This weak I > have listened for instance to a Spanish > songhttps://open.spotify.com/track/1MdsletWuIR9ItEnitWRwp?si=yZPJfu01R_6RAmw9ang8mQDo > you feel streaming services restrict our access to music or do they extend > it? :-/-J. > > - .... . -..-. . -. -.. -..-. .. ... -..-. .... . .-. . > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Zoom Fridays 9:30a-12p Mtn GMT-6 bit.ly/virtualfriam > un/subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ > archives: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ >
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